MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Funding allocations towards a Morgantown Utility Board infrastructure project will be allowed to be transferred over to another MUB-focused project.
The Monongalia County Commission approved that approximately $300,000 in remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated for sanitary sewer upgrades to the Morgantown Industrial Park can be transferred over to the Chaplin Hill Sanitary Sewer Project. This was approved by the commissioners after an overview of ARPA dollars by Monongalia County Commissioner Sean Sikora and County Administrator Rennetta McClure found that the funds for the Morgantown Industrial Park upgrades could be used for other sources.
“What had happened is that when we did the original sewer project in the industrial park, the value of that was $3.4 million, and it came in at $3.1 million,” said Sikora. “So MUB just put those funds on deposit and has been crediting those funds (prompting the formal adjustment),” he said.
The Chaplin Hill Sanitary Sewer Project includes a water system overhaul, the installation of sewer lines, and upgrades to the Chaplin Hill water storage facilities, with the work valued at approximately $14 million. This will support economic development around the Westridge Business Development and the surrounding business parks in that area as well as support growth at Mylan Park, which aims to continue to expand on recreational offerings in the next few years. With funding already squared away with upgrades at the Morgantown Industrial Park, the transfer of funds to the Chaplin Hill project was an easy move to make.
“We’re just making the paperwork all line up,” said Sikora. “It’s redefining the value of the project over here, redefining the project here so that both are accurate and it’s documented,” he said.
Sikora mentioned that the carryover funds were spotted when he and County Administrator Rennetta McClure were filing an end-of-the-year ARPA report. Once it was determined that the Morgantown Industrial Park upgrades no longer needed the funding, MUB was contacted to see if the transfer of funds would be considered necessary, with financial adjustments needed to be taken by the utility to complete the process. The transfer of the funds towards the Chaplin Hill Sanitary Sewer Project was supported by MUB.
“The administrator and I had to track that as we went forward, and even when we did our final ARPA funding report, we had to adjust those two budgets,” said Sikora. “So I imagine that this is the result of MUB realizing that they had to have that adjusted,” he said.
With the funds moving over to support the Chaplin Hill Sanitary Sewer Project, the approximately $20.6 million in ARPA funds allocated to Monongalia County will be fully spent on over a dozen infrastructure projects. This includes approximately $8.6 million directed towards county broadband expansion efforts and over a dozen water and sewer projects across the county (over half were not related to MUB). With MUB already making the accounting adjustments on their end, it appears that leftover ARPA funds won’t go to waste.
“I imagine that this is the result of MUB realizing that they had to have that adjusted too, so it’s similarly just making the paperwork all line up,” Sikora said.