MORGANTOWN — Referencing “Machiavellian cruelty at the hands of the general manager” longtime Morgantown Utility Board (MUB) general counsel Tim Stranko announced his resignation during Monday’s regular MUB meeting.
Speaking during the public portion of the session, Stranko aimed a number of remarks at General Manager Tim Ball.
“Suffice it to say that the best judge of a man’s character is how he treats other people, particularly people who are subordinate to him,” Stranko said, later adding, “The general manager neither seeks or receives advice.”
Stranko said he’s been with MUB for 22 years. Both Ball and Stranko declined to speak publicly about the circumstances leading to the resignation.
Also during his remarks, Stranko brought up a handful of issues, most notably the situation faced by the Westover Sanitary Board.
Stranko serves as counsel for the City of Westover. He said the city’s sanitary board does “incredible work” but is completely overwhelmed.
He said the Westover board has two full-time employees, 2,278 customers and a gross annual revenue of $862,000, the majority of which ($728,914) goes to MUB for treatment services and business support.
“Westover’s Sanitary Board is in trouble and they’ve come to MUB and asked for help, and MUB’s, I think stupidly parochial and selfish response is, ‘You fix your system first and get it to our standards and then we’ll talk about taking it over,’ ” Stranko said.
He went on to say, “They have no capital funding plan and they have no tools or ability to go out and find money like you know MUB has. This is reprehensible conduct,” Stranko said. “Shame on us. Shame on Morgantown, and that’s what I’ll tell [Morgantown] city council.”
Stranko said Westover’s lift stations are “critically deficient” and he quoted MUB personnel as describing one such station as “likely to fail,” which, he said, would result in waste being released into the Monongahela River.
Following Stranko’s remarks, Morgantown Mayor Bill Kawecki said he would like MUB to look into the situation in Westover given millions in riverfront redevelopment planned in Morgantown.
“We’re investing a considerable amount of money in our riverfront and riverfront development,” Kawecki said. “When I hear the possibility of a spill into that river, where we have our drinking water, our canoers, kayakers … I find that very distressing.”
In other news from Monday’s meeting, Ball said Kanawha Stone is clearing and grubbing ahead of the relocation of Cobun Creek Road as a part of the construction of a new reservoir — Flegal Reservoir — along Cobun Creek.
As for property acquisition for the $47 million project, Ball said there is a condemnation proceeding in circuit court that will set a purchase price for a piece of property MUB has thus far been unable to negotiate for.
“That’s with one landowner. We’ll continue to try to continue to negotiate that so perhaps that hearing won’t be necessary,” Ball said. “But that’s the process, if negotiations are not successful, then circuit court will decide how much it’s worth.”
Ball went on to provide an update on the raw water pipeline that will deliver water from the reservoir to MUB’s treatment facility.
He explained that a needed right of way from the Federal Bureau of Prisons to cross onto land occupied by FCI Morgantown has been cleared, at least locally.
“They’ve described that their process is that the right-of-way may require another two years of administrative review in D.C.,” Ball said, explaining that in the meantime an occupancy permit has been granted that will allow work to begin.
MUB Engineer Doug Smith previously explained that there’s no way to pipe water from the reservoir to the treatment facility using gravity without going through the prison’s property.
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