MORGANTOWN — After a brief executive session on Monday, the Morgantown Utility Board cast a unanimous vote approving the license agreement that will allow it to run a 30-inch, gravity fed water line through White Park using the previously agreed upon route — Route 3.
MUB’s vote leaves Morgantown City Council as the final hurdle for the agreement, which has been at the center of a public tug of war between MUB and the city over the last month or so.
City Council will take up the issue when it meets at 7 p.m. tonight.
The license agreement, including a map of the agreed upon route and the location of a new trail MUB will have to construct, is part of council’s agenda packet, available at morgantownwv.gov.
The line will connect MUB’s new Flegal Reservoir, under construction along Cobun Creek, with its treatment facility, located off Don Knotts Boulevard.
Conversation, debate and negotiations over what route that line should take began in April, when public backlash forced MUB to halt work on its original path through the park due to the impact it would have on the public space and hundreds of its mature trees.
After months of discourse that included numerous public meetings, MUB, Morgantown City Council and BOPARC all voted to approve an alternate route through the park — Route 3 — and laid out a number of agreed upon concessions that MUB would need to make to be granted access.
In early September, the parties began putting those concessions in writing in the form of a licensing agreement.
But negotiations quickly stalled.
Frustrated over a lack of progress and what it viewed as unreasonable demands, MUB went public on Oct. 14, stating it would instead focus on a longer, more expensive route around the park.
A short time later the utility said it planned to cut off negotiations on Nov. 1 — the date the parties would ultimately come to an agreement.
Among other stipulations spelled out in the agreement, MUB will have to build a new trail, including two water crossings, and provide $3,000 annually per trail mile in maintenance fees. The utility will also plant two trees for every tree damaged or removed during construction of the water line.
MUB also voted unanimously on Monday to withdraw its Oct. 14 vote shifting its focus to the more costly Route 5/5a, beneath Mississippi Street.
MUB General Manager Tim Ball said it will likely be early to mid-January before contractor D&M Construction can resume work on the line, which was about 80% complete when the project was halted.
Route 3 will run about 3,600 feet, basically from Mississippi Street to Don Knotts Boulevard. About 600 feet of the line will cut through private property.
In other news from Monday’s meeting, Ball said a settlement between MUB, the city and James and Karen Giuliani has been executed regarding a number of properties along Forest Avenue.
In December of 2017, the Giulianis brought a lawsuit against the city and MUB, claiming work performed by MUB below Forest Avenue caused slides, making their properties unfit to rent and costing the couple thousands monthly.
Details of a $1.5 million combined settlement from the city and MUB became public in February, but the agreement was just finalized last week according to Ball. It is unknown if the dollar amounts included in the agreement changed since February.
As part of the settlement, about 4 acres of property on and around Forest Avenue went to the city. Ball said the land was transferred on Oct. 31.
Lastly, MUB voted unanimously to double the Christmas bonuses it will provide to its employees this year, from $50 to $100.
The bonuses are expected to cost the utility approximately $23,200.
