MORGANTOWN — With a unanimous vote Tuesday evening, the Morgantown Utility Board joined Star City Town Council in approving an asset purchase agreement and an operations and maintenance agreement that will allow MUB to take over Star City’s water, sewer and stormwater utilities.
The acquisition now heads to Charleston for a final review by the West Virginia Public Service Commission.
If ultimately approved by the PSC, MUB will take complete ownership of all Star City water and sewer lines and facilities. As the state set up stormwater management as a municipal public work – not a public utility – the O&M agreement will make MUB the operational agent for the town’s stormwater system.
As of March, Star City had 945 water and sewer customers, 17 miles of gravity sewer lines and 10.5 miles of water main. There were 877 customers in Star City’s MS4 (Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System).
MUB was already the town’s treated water provider and all sewer flows out of Star City are treated at MUB’s riverside treatment facility, which is located in the town.
While Star City officials initially hoped its customers could be taken in at MUB’s “Morgantown” rates, Star City customers will see their rates remain unchanged.
The two sides began working publicly on the merger in March.
At that time, a Star City customer was paying $13.20 more than a MUB customer for the same amount of water. On the sewer side, MUB customers were paying $3.68 more. MUB’s stormwater fees were $7.58 (flat rate) and $3.03 (per 1,000 square feet). Star City’s fees were $5.88 and $2.35 respectively.
These numbers do not reflect increases that took effect on both sides as of July 1.
“Really, what it amounts to is Morgantown is higher on sewer than what Star City is. Star City is higher on water than what Morgantown is. If you put the two together, it’s not a big difference,” Star City Mayor Sharon Doyle said.
While Doyle said it’s disappointing that Star City’s customers couldn’t be taken in at MUB’s standard rates, the acquisition is still a tremendous net benefit to the town.
“This is something that we should have done a long time ago. We’re a small town. We don’t generate the revenue we need for large, capital improvements. So, in order to effectively serve our citizens and protect the water and environment, this is where we need to go.”
Doyle continued.
“Our staff does what they can do and they do a great job, but we don’t have engineers and the expertise and staffing that MUB can offer. It’s going to be good for our public works staff to be able to focus on streets and our parks and other things they’ve had to put off because of working on the water and sewer systems.”
Star City joins Westover, which will finalize MUB’s acquisition of its systems once the Holland Avenue and Dents Run pump station projects are complete.
MUB is currently operating Westover’s water, sewer and stormwater systems via an O&M agreement.
Under MUB, rate changes for Star City and Westover customers will go before Morgantown City Council.
