MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown Utility Board got updates on major projects and announced plans to help neighborhood groups with storm and sanitary sewer system details.

General Manager Mike McNulty described a future project for the residents of Oak Court and Briar Patch Lane to upgrade the storm system as part of the addition of the King’s Court development nearby.

“The King’s Court development is going to give us an opportunity to work with the developer and the Monongalia County Commission to partner on the construction of storm water system upgrades,” McNulty said.

McNulty said this was an opportunity to fix a problem noted in the preliminary engineering report completed by Strand Associates following intense rains in the summer of 2021. That event damaged several properties in the Popenoe Run area that is now part of an upgrade financed jointly by the city of Morgantown, MUB, and the Mon County Commission.

“This project will replace a privately owned and undersized storm water system that has been plaguing Oak Court for many decades,” McNulty said.

Preliminary work is also underway to tie neighborhoods in the Van Voorhis Road area into the MUB wastewater treatment system. The residents of Brettwald, Mountain Cliff, Brettwald Estates, and Bakers Ridge are currently served by package plants. The Thrasher Group will conduct an assessment of the current system and the preliminary engineering report in all four neighborhoods.

“Ultimately MUB would take over those systems, so we want to understand what condition they’re in and what work needs to be done to bring them up to the standard they need to be in before we take them over.”

The cost of the engineering reports is estimated to be $95,000 to be paid by the homeowner associations. MUB officials will submit the reports to agencies that could provide funding assistance to complete the work.

“We submit the preliminary engineering report (PER) to the funding agencies,” Rogers said. “They need that PER to make a determination if they can provide any help, and we hope that is the case.”

The bid date for the Cheat Lake Waste Water Treatment Plant is October 22. The upgrade is estimated to cost $39.6 million with a sewer rate increase of 100 percent, the first hike in ten years for Cheat Lake area customers to pay for the work. The 100 percent increase could be adjusted down to 91 percent depending on where the actual bid tabulation lines up with the estimated cost.

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