MORGANTOWN — The Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners voted 5-1 with one abstention on Monday to support MUB’s selected route through White Park for the placement of a raw water pipeline.
The vote, which is solely advisory to Morgantown City Council, came with two stipulations.
The first is the creation of a license agreement that will spell out, among other things, MUB’s responsibilities in accessing the park and maintaining its work there going forward.
The second is the completion of a right-of-way agreement with one of the park’s neighbors that will actually allow MUB to run a segment of the 30-inch, gravity fed pipeline off park property and through two private parcels.
According to data provided by MUB, approximately 600 feet of the line will run on private property with 3,000 running on city property.
MUB Assistant Manager and Chief Engineer Doug Smith said the utility already has a verbal agreement with the property owner and plans to make that official in the next day or so.
Smith provided the board an updated map showing the deviation onto private land.
BOPARC President Patrick Hathaway was the lone vote against the recommendation of the updated Route 3 — as identified on MUB’s matrix of potential routes available at mub.org/waterline.
“The majority opinion that I’ve heard from the citizens of Morgantown is that they don’t want a route through this park. I think that means something,” Hathaway said. “As the people who own this property, they don’t want this here, and I think that has to mean something to somebody, somewhere.”
While others voted in favor of the new Route 3, they did so with some reluctance.
BOPARC member Danielle Trumble said she took exception to MUB’s board of directors selecting a route to recommend to Morgantown City Council before receiving any official input from BOPARC. She said she came into Monday’s meeting torn on how to proceed.
“I brought up at multiple meetings that MUB would move forward with or without us and I was told that I was wrong, but that’s essentially what they did. Their board voted to recommend a route to city council without the input from BOPARC,” she said, referencing the unanimous vote taken by the MUB board on Aug. 19 to recommend Route 3 to council.
MUB has indicated from the beginning that in order for the pipe to use gravity to deliver water from the utility’s new secondary source reservoir along Cobun Creek to its treatment facility along Don Knotts Boulevard, it must lay within a fairly narrow path, all of which runs through White Park.
Diverting around the park, MUB said, would require a pumping station, adding millions to the project cost and, possibly, rate increases for all MUB customers.
The utility budgeted about $2.1 million for the pipeline’s original route along the park’s existing walking trail. That route was abandoned due to public outcry in April. Route 3 is the shortest and cheapest of the alternatives, at about $2.9 million.
While some board members said their job was to advocate for the park and let MUB worry about rate increases and public opinion, others said the decision was about finding a balance — particularly in light of MUB’s promise to plant two trees for each it removes and provide park amenities, like a new trail and pedestrian bridge.
“It’s all about balance, isn’t it?” William Hutchens said. “We’ve got a job to protect the assets, our parks … but just because I’m sitting as a board member for BOPARC, I don’t abdicate my responsibility as a community member.”
Rachel Fetty, who also serves as the city council representative for 1st Ward, abstained from the vote.
MUB General Manager Tim Ball is expected to address the issue at Tuesday’s Morgantown City Council meeting.
