NICHOLAS COUNTY, WV (WOAY) – For new Mayor Dave Harper, Summersville is home.
Some years back, he was the city recorder and served on the council. He calls the people electing him mayor a dream.
“A little strange when you go into a restaurant, and people say, ‘Hi, mayor,’ and I’m looking behind me, and where are you? I don’t consider myself a politician. I consider myself a businessperson because the city operates like a business,” Harper said. “So everything in Summersville is a gift. Giving me this position has been pretty awesome.”
With Summersville Lake and nearby Monongahela National Forest, the mayor calls Summersville a tourism mecca with great growth potential.
“Especially with our new sports complex, hopefully in the next two or three years it’ll be built and bring in people from all over,” said Harper. “And we have a great arena and conference center — where I think 72 teams came in for basketball, and then we got wrestling going on. So it’s a very active community.”
The mayor says they acquired a visitor center property, and the middle school will be done in about a year. He also wants to tackle the housing problem.
Summersville is nurturing its trails.
“Hopefully, get signed and have two designs this month and get it approved. It’ll be about seven miles of trails, bike trails,” the mayor said. “So I think we’re putting a lot of emphasis on people getting out and exercising, getting in nature.”
According to Harper, he will be working with the new Summersville police chief, Brad Reed, on keeping the community safe.
“I want to make sure we have the proper equipment for them,” said the mayor. ” And Summersville has always been noted as a speed trap. I want to get that out of the equation.”
Harper calls Summersville an oasis in the middle of West Virginia.
“It’s got beauty, lots of friendly people. We’ve got lots of potential about where we can grow,” the mayor said. “So I’d like to see if we can get the downtown back up and running again. That’s a major project for me.”
