MORGANTOWN — The city’s public works and maintenance garage has got a lot of problems.
The HVAC runs on duct tape, and the building is no longer impenetrable by wind, rain or wayward cats.
In other words, “It needs help,” Morgantown Director of Engineering and Public Works Damien Davis said.
And the city has been trying to provide that help.
The garage was one of the city assets deeded to the Morgantown Building Commission in 2022 in exchange for the issuance of bonds to finance significant improvements to the aging facilities.
Morgantown City Hall and the Norwood Fire Station were also part of that arrangement. Significant upgrades to those buildings were completed this year.
The city is looking to spend between $2 million and $2.5 million to fix the garage.
But the project has been bid three times now. Low bids from those respective efforts were $4.5 million, $3.4 million and, most recently, $3.2 million.
Morgantown City Council, on Wednesday, approved a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with Veritas Contracting – the company that made the $3.2 million offer.
“This is a resolution to move forward if we can make those funds work,” Davis said, explaining there is still work being done to whittle down the cost of the project and the city is not obligated if the numbers don’t add up.
“Our garage is definitely in need of some work out there,” he said. “The bottom is rusting out of it. The roof is leaking. The HVAC is held together by duct tape. It’s one of the major needs. I think we’re going to work hard to try to identify the funds, get it awarded and get this moving.”
One of the complicating factors for this project is the West Virginia Division of Highways’ forthcoming Green Bag Road project.
The Green Bag Road / Mississippi Street intersection sits less than 400 feet from the garage. That intersection will become a roundabout, and the state will need a chuck of garage property for that work.
“The DOH, even though they’re opening bids for that, they still haven’t worked with the property owners along there, at least us, for right of way of the property. We do know where their design is going to be, and it takes up most of our employee parking and material storage area, which is about two acres,” Davis said. “But we don’t know where they’re at with property acquisition and stuff like that.”
The DOH was originally supposed to open bids for the Green Bag project this past Tuesday. That bid opening has been pushed to December.
