MORGANTOWN — The Upper Popenoe Run sanitary and stream restoration project initiated in the wake of historic flooding in June and July 2021 likely won’t be out for bid until next spring at the earliest.
During a recent update to the utility’s board of directors, MUB General Manager Mike McNulty said E.L. Robinson Engineering has provided a cost estimate of $2,055,000 for the project, which will restore some 3,000 feet of the Popenoe Run stream and replace 3,000 feet of 60-year-old clay sewer lines.
The project has taken on its own subplot in the ongoing drama between the city of Morgantown and the Morgantown Utility Board.
In August 2021, the project was touted as a fine example of both local collaboration and American Rescue Plan Act dollars being put to their intended use.
MUB proposed a plan to address a small portion of its combined system overwhelmed during historic rain events earlier that summer (2021). It asked both city and the Monongalia County Commission for $1 million in ARPA dollars for the project and both agreed by year’s end.
Then things got weird.
As 2022 rolled on, an already-strained relationship between MUB and the city took on additional water over an agreement allowing recreation at MUB’s yet-unfinished Flegal Dam and Reservoir site.
The three-way Popenoe Run agreement the city was asked to draw up never materialized.
On Aug. 10, the county commission said it believed the project was being “held hostage” and threatened to pull its $1 million.
Earlier this month, during remarks opposing a city ordinance proposing, among other things, changes to the makeup of the utility’s board of directors, MUB Chair J.T. Straface appeared to confirm the commission’s suspicions.
“In a meeting held in the city of Morgantown office on July 19, 2022, Mayor Jenny Selin stated to MUB staff and a few board members in attendance that the city grant funds would not be provided to MUB unless and until an agreement was signed permitting recreation at Flegal Dam and Reservoir,” Straface said, explaining MUB’s board agreed following that meeting the Popenoe Run project would move forward without the city’s contribution if need be.
That recreation agreement was finalized in September, but the Popenoe Run project agreement, now in MUB’s hands, remains a work in progress.
“Since we’ve got the cost estimate, I’ve gone through the agreement and made a few comments that we’ll pass back to the city and the county commission,” MUB Attorney Jeff Ray said.
MUB approved a $420,000 contract with E.L. Robinson Engineering for planning, design, bid administration and construction monitoring of the project in July.
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