MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Morgantown City Council approved the second reading of bonding ordinances for a $50 million Morgantown Utility Board (MUB) upgrade to the Cheat Lake Waste Water Treatment Plant.
General Manager Mike McNulty said the $39.6 million project scope includes upgrades to the Cheat Lake Waste Water Treatment Plant and improvements to the Whites Run and Greystone pumping stations.
The final increase for rate payers will be determined when bids for the project are opened on Sept. 24. The rate increase will be at least 91 percent and could be more depending on the final bid numbers.
Resident Lee Terrace told councilors he was being handed the bill for the cost of growth in the area he didn’t ask for. Terrace said visitors to Florida who bring a car are asked to pay a one-time $300 “wheel fee” due to the assumption state roads would have to accommodate the wear and tear of an additional vehicle on the road.
“I have reasonable cost expectations,” Terrace said. “A doubling of cost is unreasonable; a doubling of cost in perpetuity is more unreasonable, and to give me a bill for growth I didn’t ask for is ludacris.”
Resident Scott Owen said he works in the construction industry and understands costs have increased since the pandemic, but a nearly 100 percent increase is unreasonable.
“I would guess my bill will increase by probably $100 every two months, and that’s a pretty big hit,” Owen said. “I just wanted to see if there was a way to soften the blow a little bit and not hit us so significantly.”
Recently, MUB General Manager Mike McNulty sent letters to rate payers in the area explaining the project and estimating a 100-percent increase due to the uncertainty of the final cost.
“That’s really what will tell the tale of the cost of the project and what the borrowing would look like and what the rates would look like,” McNulty said.
The last time MUB customers in the Cheat Lake had a sewer rate increase was 10 years ago. The proposed upgrade would allow for operations for the 20 years, and with a 91-percent increase, customers would pay $67.97/3,400 gallons treated.
“There are about 38 to 40 utilities that would have higher rates than what our proposed rate is,” McNulty said. “One of the highest rates would be the West Virginia American Water Co.; their rates run about $83.68 per month.”
The rate increase in the plan will be permanent. McNulty said he expects maintenance projects that will require additional rate increases inside the 30-year bond window and major renovations beyond the bond window that will require funding.
“As power goes up, that’s the largest expense we have next to debt service, McNulty said. “Those costs would have to increase.”
The council also approved a budget amendment for $500,000 to allocate for a city contribution towards the Richwood Redevelopment Project. The funding will come from a transfer from the city’s contingency fund and a contribution from the city’s capitol escrow fund via Municipal Sales Tax funds.
“So an additional $250,000 is going to be out of the general fund contingency budget,” said City Finance Director Jim Furgison on how the funds will be transferred. “The combination of those two (with the sales tax funds), that’s the $500,000, which will then be transferred over to our capitol escrow fund,” he said.
The financing was approved to fulfill parts of a resolution passed by the council in August, which coincided with a separate $500,000 contribution from the Monongalia County Commission. According to Furgison, which was seconded by Morgantown City Manager Kim Haws and representatives of the Monongalia County Development Authority, the city will have a 50/50 developmental and financial interest in the 90-acre I-68 Commerce Park as part of the contribution, which would take affect if the $1 million in financing from both the county and the city are spent and the project fails.
“It’s going to be committed towards that redevelopment, and if it all fails, we (the city) end up getting real estate,” Furgison said.
The city council also approved the acceptance of $250,000 in grant funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to support construction of a new bike skills pump track at Whitemoore Park. The grant funds include a 50 percent match from the city, which will be allocated from BOPARC’s share of Municipal Sale and Service Tax revenues.