MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The former interim Morgantown City Manager and Morgantown Municipal Airport director will be the next director of the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport.
Glen Kelly, who served nearly four years as assistant and interim city manager in Morgantown, will take over the role in a full-time capacity in November.
“It’s my home,” he said Friday on WAJR’s Morgantown AM. “It’s a home state. You always look at it with rose-colored glasses and think it’s the best place in the world. And, in many ways, it is.”
Kelly had served briefly as director of Washington County Emergency Services in Washington, Pennsylvania. He left his role as interim city manager when Morgantown City Council chose Paul Brake to replace Jeff Mikorski on a full-time basis last year.
Kelly said he’s excited to return to the area. He purchased a home in Williamstown near the airport in the 1990s.
“Of course we kept a home near that airport,” Kelly said. “I’m actually only eight minutes from the airport. It’s an area that we really enjoy. It’s a great airfield.”
He sees West Virginia’s airports as a unique catalyst for economic growth — and eventually job growth.
“That’s part of the legacy I’d like to West Virginia and my grandchildren — the opportunity for jobs so they can just stay here and work here,” Kelly said.
Kelly will begin work September 15 with current airport Manager Jeff McDougle until McDougle steps aside in November.
“It’s important for transition because otherwise people forget things,” he said. “They don’t know the last problem you had.”
Kelly was one of 23 applicants for the position.