Substantial sewer rate increases in the pipeline for Westover customers

Ben Conley, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
·2 min read

Feb. 7—Westover City Council on Monday directed its Holland Avenue project team down a path that could potentially result in a 77 % jump in sewer bills for city customers.

Based on council's guidance, the city will now simultaneously seek financing for both the Holland Avenue work as well as the replacement of the failing pump station at the heart of the city's sanitary sewer system.

The city was already looking at roughly $1.5 million in loans to complete financing on the $3.9 million Holland Avenue job.

That project will address about 2, 000 feet of Holland Avenue, including failing sanitary sewer and stormwater lines beneath the street's surface and the large retaining wall that runs along its lower portion. The city has allocated $1.9 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for that project and will receive a total of $475, 000 from the county and state.

The pump station replacement will likely be at least $5 million, but could be as much as $6.5 million depending on whether the city needs to replace the force main that takes all Westover's flows across the Monongahela River to meet up with the Morgantown Utility Board system.

Thrasher's Doug Smith said the pump station needs to be the city's priority.

"This is your single point of service through MUB ... I think that pump station is well past its life. It's well past a catastrophe. It's an enforcement issue if something happens, " he said.

In total, project accountant Zack Dobbins explained, the city will seek as much as $8, 025, 000 in Clean Water State Revolving Fund loans at 3 % interest over a 20-year term.

Based on the average monthly sewer bill (2, 218 gallons) rate payers will initially see their bills jump just under 9 %, from $17.47 to $19.02.

Then, once the projects are substantially complete, the average bill could jump as high as $30.93 depending on how much the city ends up borrowing.

As part of the discussion, City Attorney Tim Stranko confirmed city leadership is weighing a number of options about the sewer system's future management. Those options range from an operations and management agreement to bring MUB on to run the utility all the way up to MUB acquiring the city's infrastructure and taking over as the city's service provider.

"The capital projects in front of Westover, specifically Holland Avenue and the Dents Run pump station, regardless of whether MUB acquires or operates our sewer utility, that's a responsibility of our rate payers to pay for the repair of infrastructure in Westover, " he said.