MORGANTOWN — The board of directors for the Morgantown Utility Board approved on Tuesday the preliminary exploration of a funding source for some $8 million in upgrades to facilitate an anchor development in the expanded Morgantown Industrial Park.
MUB General Manager Tim Ball explained that Mountaintop Beverage is the potential investor that’s been tied to efforts to build a new Harmony Grove interchange off I-79, allowing for direct interstate access to the park as well as the park’s expansion.
Ball said the project would likely be a $100 million private investment and create between 60 and 100 full-time jobs.
“This proposed Mountaintop Beverage facility is going to consume a large amount of water and sewer service — about 500 gallons a minute on a continuous around-the-clock basis,” Ball said. “It’s going to require substantial improvements in our system.”
Specifically, about $4.1 million in water upgrades and $3.9 million in sewer upgrades to MUB’s infrastructure.
These costs are normally borne by the applicant, but Mountaintop Beverage has indicated they “threaten the viability of the project.”
Therefore, upon request, MUB plans to explore the potential of securing the funds through an IJDC (Infrastructure Jobs Development Council) loan to be repaid through a debt service surcharge by Mountaintop Beverages and other future customers of the MIP expansion.
In this setup, MUB and the city of Morgantown essentially take out a loan and act as a passthrough for the funding. MUB has successfully used such arrangements multiple times, most recently for a Rockley Road waterline extension.
But there is a caveat.
“The difference here is this Mountaintop Beverage project in the MIP would be the first commercial/industrial application of the approach. Because of that, it brings with it a much higher risk of default on the promised debt service payment being made by the customers,” Ball explained.
That’s critical as Mountaintop Beverage will likely be the only customer paying that debt service in the initial period following the improvements.
To safeguard against this, Ball explained that MUB will only move forward in this effort if an irrevocable backstop can be put in place to guarantee repayment in the case the project goes under before the 30-year loan is repaid.
Ball said he’s confident the backing can be found, noting the most obvious answer would be to have the government-backed loans forgiven if the project defaults.
“Why would they do that? Because that’s their job in the economic development office,” Ball said.
It was noted on multiple occasions that Tuesday’s approval was simply to allow MUB administration to explore the details of this funding option — a process likely to take up to a year.
“If we succeed in doing that, we can then play a critical role in helping to successfully pursue this opportunity for our county,” Ball said. “Not because it’s our function to do that, but because it’s our mission to not be an obstacle. MUB was created 33 years ago to remove obstacles to our community’s growth.”
In other news from Tuesday’s meeting, the board unanimously approved a 3% cost of living raise for MUB employees who have been with the utility dating back to at least July 1, 2020.
The raise will go into effect Jan. 1 and will run the remaining six months of the fiscal year at an overall cost of $136,000.
