MORGANTOWN – The final step in the Morgantown Utility Board’s acquisition of Star City’s water and sewer facilities, the setting of customer rates, is currently underway.
As utilities to be operated by MUB, that authority falls to Morgantown City Council.
Earlier this week, the body voted 5-1 to approve on first reading an ordinance that would keep the town’s current water and sewer rates in place. It’s likely the matter will be back for second reading and adoption on Feb. 17.
The initial vote was the continuation of a conversation that began during Morgantown City Council’s January committee of the whole meeting.
Under current rates, Star City customers pay more than Morgantown customers for the same amount of water and stormwater, but less than Morgantown customers for the same amount of sewer.
The math becomes confusing due to the fact that Morgantown and Star City customers are not only charged different rates, but the rates change at different usage thresholds.
However, MUB Chairman Erik Carlson has pointed out that roughly half of Star City’s 956 water and sewer customers pay the minimum bill based on usage.
“While the price per 1,000 gallons of sewer is currently higher for Morgantown residents than Star City, the way their tariff is set up, half of Star City’s customers pay the minimum payment, and that minimum payment is significantly higher for Star City than it is for MUB,” he said.
According to information included in the council’s agenda packet, the minimum sewer bill in Star City is $20.66 compared to $10.69 in Morgantown. On the water side, a minimum bill in Star City is $19.32 compared to $6.36 in Morgantown.
Mayor Danielle Trumble, who cast the lone vote against the rate-setting ordinance, expressed a number of concerns, including the discrepancy in rates.
She also pointed out that initial conversations surrounding the Star City acquisition focused on the town’s inability to generate sufficient revenue to finance significant water, sewer or stormwater capital projects.
Asked what capital improvement projects Star City is anticipating, Carlson said none, explaining, “Current Star City rates support its operation and it is not anticipated at this point from MUB that there would need to be upgrades.”
Carlson went on to say that MUB will not need to hire additional staff to take on the added infrastructure.
Trumble took note of that.
“I know that taking on any additional infrastructure comes at an opportunity cost. If there’s a break or something like that in Star City. If there’s upgrades or maintenance needed in a different area, that’s work that’s not being done in the city limits of Morgantown or other parts of the system,” she said. “For example, I’m trying to get a crumbling sidewalk fixed in my neighborhood. I’m told that it’s unlikely to happen at this time because there’s a crumbling water line underneath it and if any work is done on the sidewalk it’s likely that the water line will fail. I would like to see MUB take more of an effort to proactively replace those types of things within the core of our system.”
While MUB’s acquisition of Star City’s utilities got to Morgantown City Council first, Westover won’t be too far behind.
Westover and MUB currently have an operations and management agreement in place through which MUB is responsible for all customer service, billing and fee collection, system infrastructure maintenance and upgrades, service of all debt, and all other ongoing operations of Westover’s system. Once Westover’s ongoing pump station replacement project is substantially complete, the two sides will finalize the acquisition.
As both Star City and Westover’s water and wastewater were already flowing from and to MUB facilities, the acquisitions will not impact system capacity.
