Morgans Run extension cost looks to be well below expectations
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MORGANTOWN - The 26 households in the Morgans Run Road area of Cheat Lake to be served by an upcoming Morgantown Utility Board water line extension project recently got some good news.
On Sept. 29, MUB opened bids for the project, which includes the placement of approximately 17,000 feet of water lines, 28 water service connections, four fire hydrants and one pressure reducing vault.
The numbers were lower than anticipated.
MUB Chair Erik Carlson said Fairmont-based BC Allen Company was the project’s low bidder with an offer of approximately $2,090,000, bringing the total project cost to $2.87 million.
The utility board had anticipated something closer to $4.6 million.
"Any time you go to public bid, who knows what's going to happen," Carlson said, explaining the flood of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding for water and sewer projects has largely run its course.
"With the federal dollars that were out there recently with water and sewer, everything was coming in high because it could. Those dollars have dried up. They already have to have been allocated, and they have to be spent by the end of the year. And so, these people who brought a lot of other folks on, I think, are looking to keep them all employed," he said. "So, we're very, very excited about getting that project done."
For the folks on the receiving end of the expanded water service, the lower-than-expected project cost means less money to be repaid via a surcharge on their monthly water bills.
MUB distributed information indicating that surcharge would likely start at $77.13 monthly for the 480-month life of the loan but could be as high as $154 depending on the ultimate price of the project.
The work is being financed through a combination of grant from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Projection's Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation program as well as a grant and low-interest loan from the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council.
"We're at the $77 ... The way the waterfall works with the funding from the state, the grant gets scaled back when the budget is below [projections], not the loan. Though that's something that our team at MUB did work on trying to get the state to lower that surcharge for the 26 customers out there, but weren't able to get that done," Carlson told Morgantown City Council earlier this week.
"However, on an annual basis, if we have brought on five more people, five more houses out there, there will be a recalculation of that $77 as it will be spread across to the new folks that would be on that line as well. So it won't be above $77.13, and we hopefully will see it in the future years going down below that."
Following Carlson's comments, council unanimously approved the second of three readings of an ordinance authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds for the project. A public hearing and third reading will appear on the body's Oct. 20 agenda. Council also approved the second and final reading of an ordinance authorizing the waterline extension.
The utility board will be back in city council chambers in the near future to officially set the rates for the new MUB water customers.
The extension project will serve homes along Morgans Run Road, Lubbock Lane, Longhorn Lane, Rugh Lane and Armstrong Drive.
According to MUB, project construction will begin in January and take about a year to complete.