MORGANTOWN — Officials with the town of Star City said Tuesday they’re ready to turn the town’s water and sewer infrastructure – as well as management of its stormwater system – over to the Morgantown Utility Board.
MUB General Manager Mike McNulty said the utility is “ready, willing and able” to take it on as soon as the two sides iron out the details.
“The town council and the administration has determined that due to the small size of the town of Star City, the town is unable to generate sufficient revenue to finance significant water, sewer, or stormwater capital projects. Surface water entering the town of Star City from an uphill jurisdiction creates significant stormwater management challenges,” Star City Mayor Sharon Doyle said.
She later added, “We’re just at a point now where we need to start looking to the future. We just can’t continue to just go day by day, and then something big happens, and we’re left asking ‘what do we do now?’”
The town has 945 sewer customers and 17 miles of gravity sewer lines. Its system generates $428,000 in gross annual revenue. MUB treats all flows out of Star City at its riverside treatment facility, which is located in the town.
MUB is the lone treated water provider for Star City’s 945 water customers. The water is delivered through 10.5 miles of water main. Water sales generate a gross annual revenue of about $493,000.
There are 877 customers in Star City’s MS4 (Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System).
If ultimately finalized, and approved through the West Virginia Public Service Commission, the arrangement would see MUB take complete ownership of all water and sewer lines and facilities. As the state set up stormwater management as a municipal public work, and not a public utility, MUB and Star City will enter into an operations and management agreement that will make MUB the operational agent for the town’s stormwater system.
Star City’s utilities are debt free and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
“It’s important to recall that we are interconnected physically. There are 22 interconnection points between MUB and the Star City sewer utility. So physically, this makes sense,” Star City attorney Tim Stranko said. “I visited with you before we talked about harvesting the economies of scope and scale. This is another perfect example of how we can drive costs down for all the customers.”
Literally one year ago (March 12, 2024), Stranko stood before the utility’s board of directors proposing MUB acquire Westover’s sanitary sewer system.
Stranko also serves as the city attorney for Westover.
Westover and MUB currently have an operations and management agreement in place through which MUB is responsible for all customer service, billing and fee collection, system infrastructure maintenance and upgrades, service of all debt, and all other ongoing operations of Westover’s system.
Once Westover’s upcoming Holland Avenue and pump station projects are complete, the two sides will finalize MUB’s acquisition of that system.
Comparing current rates for the same amount of water, a MUB customer is paying $25.44 and a Star City customer is paying $38.64. On the sewer side, a MUB customer is paying $42.76 and a Star City customer is paying $39.08. MUB’s stormwater fees are $7.58 (flat rate) and $3.03 (per 1,000 square feet). Star City’s fees are $5.88 and $2.35, respectively.
