MORGANTOWN — A bump in interest rates coupled with market inflation since 2016 may force a change in how a portion of Morgantown Utility Board’s (MUB) new Cobun Creek Reservoir project is funded.
Speaking at MUB’s most recent board meeting, General Manager Tim Ball explained that bids for all but one aspect of the reservoir project — the raw-water pipeline that will run between the reservoir and MUB’s treatment facility — should be in hand in the coming days.
Ball explained that inflation and interest rates will impact all portions of the project, the pipeline just happens to be the aspect that can most easily be treated as a separate project if needed
He said MUB is looking at the possibility of approaching the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council (IJDC), depending on how the other bids come in.
“The raw water pipeline is the easiest component of the whole project to separate out and fund in a different manner. So we think we may need IJDC money to do that,” Ball said, explaining that MUB will likely need some procedural leeway from the IJDC as the agency has a fairly involved checklist of milestones that must be completed prior to bidding..
Ball said MUB continues to wait on a needed permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the reservoir project, which he hopes will be secured by this summer.
He went on to say that the $443,000 tree-clearing effort on the future site of the reservoir is nearly complete. All the trees have been felled and Ohio-based Aster Hardwoods is about halfway through the clearing process.
