MUB General Manager Tim Ball will retire in January
Sometimes you just know.
That was the case in 1978 for an engineering student from Welch working as an intern for the Morgantown Water Commission.
And it was certainly the case in January 1988 when that former intern, Tim Ball, was hired away from the Clarksburg Water Board to help build an engineering department for the newly formed Morgantown Utility Board.
Ball will call it a career on Jan. 4, having followed his mentors, Tom Urquhart and Jim Green, as MUB’s third general manager, a position he’s held since 2010.
To hear him tell it, things have gone exactly as planned.
“Honestly, in a sense, I did,” Ball said when asked if he envisioned one day retiring from MUB.
“I recognized while I was in college that the water commission, even in 1978 and 79, was a special place and Tom and Jim were special guys. They had a unique thing going on in terms of the utility. It was nothing like the typical municipal utility that people stereotype. Their utility was an active, dynamic place with a lot of projects going on, and it was exciting. I looked at their jobs and said, ‘Gee, that’s the kind of thing I’d like to do with my career.’ ”
And he did.
During his 33-year tenure at MUB, Ball helped push the organization from its water commission beginnings to the state’s largest public utility — from a potable water utility to a combined water, sanitary sewer and stormwater utility serving more than 100,000 people in the Monongalia County area.
That continual motion is a necessity, Ball explained.
“There’s always a next project at MUB. There’s always work in the pipeline. We’re looking years, sometimes decades into the future, anticipating what the community is going to need so that we have it in place by the time it’s needed,” he said.
Even as he steps away, MUB is in the midst of the largest public works undertaking in the state’s history — the simultaneous overhaul of its Star City wastewater treatment plant and the construction of the Flegal Dam and Reservoir. Taken together, the projects top out north of $150 million.
“Those projects will serve Morgantown for decades to come. The dam and reservoir were originally contemplated in the late 50s and early 60s. Here we are building it now, and it should serve this community for 100 years or more. The treatment plant has decades of future growth built into it,” Ball said.
“It’s exciting. I tell young engineers and students that’s one of the fun things about my job. I get to transport myself in time. I spend a lot of my time working in the future, and the future is a great place to work.”
Ball said he knows he’s going to miss tackling the day-to-day challenges with a talented staff he calls “second to none,” even as he looks forward to spending more time with family, a little more time in the woods and a little more time tinkering with that old Corvette in the garage.
“MUB is just a special place,” he said. “It is a little bittersweet, but the time has come, and we have a new leader here ready to take the reigns.”
Michael McNulty will become the first general manager not promoted from within the organization when he takes over as general manager in January.
Ball said it’s hard to imagine what the future holds for MUB, but he offered all those to follow a bit of advice.
“Embrace change,” he said. “And always be ready to go with the flow.”
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