MORGANTOWN — In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the board of directors for the Morgantown Utility Board joined Morgantown City Council in approving a three-way agreement to bring recreation to MUB’s Flegal Reservoir once completed.
The final party to that agreement, BOPARC, will take the matter up when it meets Wednesday afternoon.
While the vote was unanimous, board member feelings were mixed.
Erik Carlson said he believes recreation on the 125-acre reservoir site will improve quality of life for area residents while also serving a critical role for MUB.
“Economic development for me is quality of life. When you have quality of life in a community, jobs follow,” he said.
Tom Witt and Karen Kunz both reiterated concerns that making the reservoir a focal point of recreation isn’t necessarily in line with its primary function as a clean water source.
Kunz also questioned the ability of the city and BOPARC to maintain the facilities once in place, adding “I’m going to pay attention to make sure the priority is safe drinking water.”
Chairman J.T. Straface said balancing the recreational goals of the city and BOPARC with MUB’s charge is why the agreement has been so long in the making. He noted these discussions initially began in 2015.
“That’s what the agreement is really doing is protecting our investment while allowing recreation at the same time,” he said.
Prior to voting, the board heard from Rich Dennis and Steve Runfola, both of whom live near the reservoir site and both of whom are resigned to the fact that a massive public recreation facility is coming to their back yards.
“We’re not informed. We’re not being invited. We’re not in the discussions and it’s a little concerning to us,” Dennis said.
Morgantown Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli said the city — which will design, construct and, through BOPARC, oversee the recreational components — will engage the public as part of the process.
“We do have a proposed community engagement plan that we would like to pull in the residents, talk about some of the concerns and see how we might be able to mitigate those,” she said. “While there are ideas, nothing is actually designed.”
In other news from Tuesday’s meeting, the board recognized personnel from MUB’s water treatment plant, which recently received the Environmental Protection Agency’s Area-Wide Optimization Program Award for exceeding federal standards and demonstrating exceptional dedication to preserving public health.
MUB’s Star City and Cheat Lake wastewater treatment plants were also recognized for receiving Platinum Peak Performance Awards by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.
This year marks 25 consecutive years of perfect compliance for the Star City plant and 27 years perfect compliance for the Cheat Lake plant.
“Every moment of every day MUB staff are in our community doing extraordinary things,” Straface said.
Lastly, the board awarded a $157,909 contract to Anderson Excavating for a water line extension project on Lawless Road.
