MORGANTOWN – Some nine months after a six-week project to repair one of the Morgantown Parking Authority’s busy downtown lots began, the work is still not complete.
The L-shaped lot at the corner of Pleasant and Spruce streets was closed in early June for resurfacing and repairs.
The original completion deadline of Aug. 1 came and went. In September, a representative of the city cited a combination of “scheduling, coordination and ensuring all components of the project meet the required standards” as the reasons behind the delay.
It was explained at the time that the MPA anticipated being able to reopen the lot by the end of October, “hopefully.”
It couldn’t.
While the lot did eventually reopen in late 2025, MPA Executive Director Dana McKenzie said there still work to be done.
During MPA’s Wednesday meeting, McKenzie said the parking authority and Maryland-based contractor Beitzel Construction have now mutually agreed to sever ties.
“We are in the process of wrapping up our dealings with the current contractor,” McKenzie said. “It’s been back and forth and back and forth with this contractor since the beginning of the project. It was supposed to be a six-week project. It’s still not complete … There was delay after delay, penalties and so on and so forth. Right now, we have two of the entrances coming into the parking lot that have to be redone because they didn’t fix that correctly. We have a drain issue down by Iron Horse. We’re going to have to put another drop in, and then we’ve got to finish going down the alley beside Moreland Street as well.”
The original contract was for $250,000. With change orders, the number jumped slightly to $257,000.
McKenzie said the parking authority has already paid out $72,000 and has agreed to provide Beitzel an additional $135,000 for their work.
“So, that leaves us still $50,000 to the good that we can use to have another contractor come in,” he said, explaining MPA is working with city administration to initiate that process.
Per the terms of the contract, McKenzie said MPA enforced $30,000 in penalties against Beitzel due to the delays.
“You know, if they’re in there and they’re doing their best, trying their hardest, things happen, right,” he said. “You just didn’t know when they were going to show up.”
