City Council - Regular Meeting

For those wishing to participate. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We'll call this meeting to order. This is Morgantown City Council regular meeting for Tuesday, May 19th. It is 7.05 p.m. Clerk Boyd, would you please call the roll?

Yes. Joe Buchanan. Jody Hollingshead.

Here.

Weezy Michael. Here. Jenny Saleen. Here. Mark Downs.

Here.

Deputy Mayor Butcher.

Here.

Mayor Trumbull. Here.

Here first item on the agenda is approval of minutes. We have the May 5th, 2026 regular meeting minutes and the May 5th, 2026 special meeting minutes. Were there any additions or corrections approved by consensus? Yes. Great correspondence. We have several items of correspondence this evening. The first of which being a proclamation recognizing foster care awareness month. And Jessalyn is here to accept.

Maybe not.

All right.

I guess I'll read it from here then.

Whereas children and youth are the most valuable resources of the state of West Virginia, and every child deserves a safe, stable, and nurturing home, and whereas during Foster Care Awareness Month, we recognize the resilience, strength, and potential of children and youth in foster care throughout West Virginia, And whereas there are hundreds of children and youth in West Virginia who are in need of safe, loving, and supportive foster families, and whereas foster parents, kinship givers, and adoptive families play a vital role in providing stability, hope, and healing to children who have experienced trauma, neglect, or abuse, and whereas the National Youth Advocate Program works diligently across West Virginia to recruit, train, and support foster families while providing comprehensive services to children and families in need, And whereas the National Youth Advocate Program is committed to strengthening families, preserving connections, and ensuring that youth have the resources, advocacy, and permanency they deserve, and whereas community awareness, partnership, and engagement are essential to meeting the ongoing need for foster parents and ensuring positive outcomes for children and youth in foster care, Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Danielle Trumbull, Mayor of the City of Morgantown, on behalf of City Council, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Foster Care Awareness Month in the City of Morgantown, West Virginia, and encourage residents to recognize the important role foster parents, kinship givers, child welfare professionals, and community partners, such as the National Youth Advocate Program, play in improving the lives of children and families across our state. We will make sure that gets sent along to them. The next item of correspondence this evening is a presentation from Morgantown utility board regarding the long-term control plan updates.

Good evening, I'm Eric Carlson with the Morgantown Utility Board, or on the Morgantown Utility Board's board. The name of the organization and being on the board is a little awkward, but we've got a couple things we want to talk with you guys about tonight. First one, we'll go ahead and start with a presentation about the Long-Term Control Plan. This is something that has been worked on for quite a while and it is vitally important to our community as a whole, particularly as it comes to, well, the health of our community and also recreation in our community. It's about how do we keep what we flush down our toilets from going into our waterways. And so we've got our consultants with Strand Associates here to give a presentation. We have Scott and Sam and we'll go ahead and start with Scott. Thank you very much.

Scott Stearns, Strand Associates. So, Tonight we are here to talk about the long-term control plan. Perfect, we can slide to the next. Okay, so I'm here with my colleague, Sam Hosovar, who will share part of this presentation as well. So the agenda for today's presentation is a subset of the deck that was previously presented. So there shouldn't be really anything new here. We're just kind of trying to highlight some of the major portions of the project and to answer any questions that may be here. So we are gonna go through the background. We're gonna look at alternative analysis and the engineer's recommendation and the discussion of grouping and phasing of projects. So just quickly to remind everybody the difference between a combined sewer system and a separate sewer system. A combined sewer system is one that was designed originally to be combined, meaning that there are known and unknown connections from the stormwater system into the sanitary system. Whereas a separate system is designed from the very beginning with two pipes. One pipe for sanitary sewage, one pipe for storm sewage. Are there ever any interconnections? Yeah, but the way the system started was in a separate system. Many states in which we work, they have a statement that Regulatory agents, they never say that you fully separate if you have a combined sewage system. Completely separating them is virtually impossible. And so most states will say if you've once been combined, you're always going to be combined. You can do some decombination. You can make that situation better, but you're never going to completely do it. So why are we here? There's a federal policy that requires communities to reduce CSOs to protect public health, recreation, and water quality. So a long-term control plan, LTCP, I might bring up some of those terminology, is a roadmap to responsibly and affordably control CSOs. So the goal isn't to eliminate CSOs. The goal is to control CSOs. So it's required by EPA, US EPA, and it's also required by the state DEP. They've given primacy to the state. It identifies the most effective and affordable solutions. That's some of the efforts that we as engineers are doing. We're taking a look at all the different suites of projects and we're trying to identify the most cost effective solutions to get you into compliance, to get the board into compliance. And then it allows improvements to be phased over many years. These are going to be massive projects. And because they're these massive projects, they need time to be able to implement. Otherwise, the rate increases would be staggering. So key elements of a long-term control plan, evaluation of CSO impacts on the receiving stream, analysis of control alternatives, green and gray infrastructure, implementation of a schedule and some sort of a financial plan on how this could potentially get paid for over time, and then regulatory compliance and public participation. So why is another update to the long-term control plan needed? This has happened before we've had long-term control plan updates in the past. And so why are we here? One, we wanna demonstrate progress toward meeting LTCP goals. There is a big wastewater treatment plant project at the Star City Wastewater Treatment Plant site, your main treatment plant or the MUV's main treatment plant. that increased capacity at that plant and it allowed the amount of CSO overflows to be reduced. So there is some progress being made. We want to affirm MUB's long-term control plan policy, not only with the MUB staff themselves, but also with the regulatory agencies and with the city. And we want to support a request for a schedule extension. The way the schedule is originally written right now, it has some pretty significant projects being completed by 2030. And these projects have not even been started in design yet. So we're not going to be able to hit it. So we need to be able to go back and put a reasonable schedule in front. And we believe DEP will accept a schedule that is reasonable. The 2014 LTCP did state that priority grouping one and capital improvements were the only affordable projects. So it's not like MUB committed to doing these projects without any additional funding. There was notes in the long-term control plan, but this was guidance document that DEP provided for us. So alternative analysis and the engineer's recommendations. So here we're gonna talk about the review of MUV's long-term control plan approach and assumptions. We're gonna talk about sites and particular infrastructure evaluated as part of a long-term control plan. What groupings of projects are needed in order to achieve 85% capture? I mentioned before that the goal of a long-term control plan isn't necessarily to completely eliminate CSOs but to control them. And so the control of 85% capture is written into the CSO long-term control plan guidance as a presumptive manner, presumptive that you'll meet water quality standards if you remove 85% of the flow or mass from your CSO volume. And then the engineers recommended project groupings. So as a review of MUB's long-term control plan approach and assumptions, the first tenet is to improve capture by treating more flow in the collection system versus strictly reducing the amount of weather flow that enters the system. And to have the percent capture goal of 85% on an annual average basis. Target basins with high CSO density and high priority outfalls, such as Deckers Creek and CSO 39, which is at the wastewater treatment plant site. Supplement wastewater treatment plant capacity with wet weather treatment. That would provide changes in forward flow design, will not be considered. So we're not planning on doing a major increase in capacity in the plant at the Star City site, it would be kind of a satellite system that would likely be at the 84 number location. And then consider infrastructure improvements that not only increase capacity, but also address existing O&M concerns. So now Sam Hosovar will introduce the unique projects recommended in the long-term control plan.

All right. Well, I have the privilege of trying to condense as much of our alternatives analysis that we did in as few slides as possible. So bear with us. We're gonna start with the Deckers Creek Interceptor evaluation and how we consider not only sewer improvements, but also screened potential pumping and treatment additions. Scott mentioned on the previous slide one of the priority areas is concentrating on sewers that have a high density of CSOs and also maybe focusing on areas that were conditioned as a concern and so the Deckers Creek Interceptor is prime place to start for that. The figure on the screen has the blue line that runs along the creek it's not representing the water body it's representing a major interceptor that runs parallel to the creek and sometimes very close to or in the creek itself. And so starting at the tipi top of that interceptor going all the way down to the mouth of Decker's Creek at the Mon River, we considered an evaluation on how to improve the sewer and reduce the active number of CSO sites in this corridor. You'll see we have two different areas circled of that interceptor. The area in yellow is generally in pretty good condition and a smaller part of the sewer so upstream of that point we would likely consider rehabilitation or replacement in kind along the same alignment. But the area circled in red was the corridor where we did an analysis of not only replacing the interceptor in its current alignment but looking at a new gravity interceptor on the north side of the creek. and also looked at adding a pumping station. So a combination of both gravity sewer and force main to try and reduce some of the construction costs. Obviously when you consider pumping, you need a site for pumping stations. So we also screen several different sites that have the potential to be a location for a pumping station But obviously this is a very high level master planning process. These sites are just a basis for us to start the next phase, a preliminary design phase. So we identified several potential sites. We called them the Valley Crossing site, the High Street site, and then obviously there is an existing Deckers Creek pumping station that pumps sewage to the treatment plant 24-7 right at the mouth of the Mon River. The other area that was a big focus of our alternatives and evaluation as well as a focal point in how to achieve that 85% capture was at the wastewater treatment plant. And CSO 39 evaluation, which is the major CSO outfall located right next to the existing wastewater treatment plant, We considered wet weather treatment at the existing wastewater treatment plant site because CSO 39 is one of the most active sites in the whole system. So really that's the low hanging fruit where it's not only on a volume basis, but a number of times active and it's adjacent to existing treatment processes that MOB already owns and operates. So it's a prime also area to put new infrastructure. What you're seeing on the screen here is all of the different intercepting sewers that come into the plant. You'll see it's kind of a mess. There's a lot of different pipes coming in from different parts of the city. They all come into kind of a central chamber that either directs flow into the treatment plant or when the plant is at its capacity it'll reroute all that excess flow into a pipe that goes out to the river so because naturally flow wants to get to the treatment plant cso39 is a an important piece of this puzzle because of the activity that already occurs there We did a whole bunch of alternatives analysis. We came up with five different groups of potential projects, looking at considering what weather treatment, both at the wastewater treatment plant or remotely in the system. We considered pumping capacity, new force mains, along with those pump station improvements or pump station additions. We looked at replacing existing gravity sewer with new gravity sewer that would be more easy to construct areas and would be bigger to add capacity to the system. And we considered multiple different sites to make sure that we weren't focusing in just on one, putting all our eggs in one basket, and if that site wasn't available, we would have nothing else to fall back on. And so the table on the screen here are the five different groups of projects, the capacities that would be required for each of the different major pieces of infrastructure that make up that group. Generally pumping is rated a million gallons per day of pumped flow, and a treatment would be how many million gallons per day that treatment process could treat. We also then on the Deckers Creek Interceptor, the last column there, came up with two major alternatives. One was a fully gravity option, and then one was a combination of gravity sewer to new pumping station that would ultimately pump flow to an existing force main that goes all the way to the wastewater treatment plant. Once we summarize the total project cost, we then looked at how much each grouping of projects would remove on a gallons per CSO basis and calculated the cost per gallon of CSO removed for each project group. Generally, the costs are gonna be approximately, not approximately, there's this range of costs, you know, 152 million on the low end to 200, or so million on the high end that are all gonna remove approximately the same amount of CSO gallons, because we are targeting that 85% metric. But as you divide those out, you'll see that the lowest cost per gallon of CSO removed was group one. And so that was the project grouping that we recommended MOB consider for further evaluation and looking specifically at how we might sequence individual projects within that group. What this project group is, to go into this one specific alternative in a little bit more detail, is new wet weather treatment at the wastewater treatment plant, which is the orange box up in the upper left hand corner. That would supplement the existing wastewater treatment plant capacity, but only be active when the wet weather was requiring it to be online. It would include a new Deckers Creek interceptor, which would have a gravity sewer portion either along the existing alignment for that first part in yellow, or we would relocate the gravity sewer to the north side of the creek. That gravity sewer would go into a new pumping station, and that would pump flow 24-7 always to the plant. And that force main coming out of the pumping station would tie into the existing 36-inch force main already in the ground that has extra capacity to push more flow to the wastewater treatment plant. In addition, we anticipate still needing the existing Deckers Creek pumping station that's at the mouth of the Deckers Creek River to pump flow from the southern parts of the city. So we would rehabilitate that or potentially replace it with a new pumping station in a very similar location, but it could be in a different style station a little ways up the river to improve aesthetics or hydraulics. This is a figure that shows the recommended Ducker's Creek alternative, that alternative one, which is a gravity interceptor and major pumping station. And this figure, for our conceptual purposes, we consider the valley crossing site. So the line work in red would show the new gravity portion of the interceptor. The line work in yellow would show the force main. And then halfway through where the red turns to yellow, there's that major lift station. Because the existing sewer, you'll see along the south side, that kind of blue highlighted line, if you can see it, it's kind of crossed out. That would be the existing interceptor to be abandoned. And right now, all the local sewers feed into that interceptor. So there would be some local sewer reconfiguration that would be required to get everything to a point where you would, you know, flow by gravity or with small local pump stations to get into that gravity sewer or pumping station. At the treatment plant, our plan would be to add additional pumping, screening, a high-rate treatment system, again for wet weather, and then disinfection to treat the flows. The figure at the top right shows that flows from 0 to 21.8 million gallons per day would fall within the existing capacity of the wastewater treatment plant, and that would receive full capacity. If the flow coming into the plant goes above 21.8, we could treat an additional 46 million gallons per day through that wet weather treatment facility that we would construct. And then only when the flows to the facility would exceed 67.8 million gallons per day would there be the potential that the CSO39 would activate. So obviously going from 21.8 to 67.8 is a great improvement. Conceptually, we've, like Scott's mentioned, the site to the north of the existing treatment plant, the former 84 lumber site, has plenty of space to build this cold weather treatment facility. Right now we're showing probably a new pumping station that would intercept the flows coming out of the CSO pipe, pump them over to this new high rate treatment system where they would get screened, treated, and disinfected before being discharged into the bond. Phasing of the projects within the project group can be tailored to MUB's priorities. This is something that we discussed at length with MUB. Ultimately, the information that we're gonna present today prioritizes projects based on the dollar per gallon of CSO removed, because this is the most cost-effective projects, but we have discussed that O&M concerns as well as the public interest often do come into play when we make the decisions on which projects need to go first within a grouping of projects. What we actually found is that if we prioritize projects within group one in this way, by looking at the most effective projects, getting those done first, we can actually eliminate two of the potential sub options within that group because we achieve 85% capture just by constructing additional wet weather treatment at the wastewater treatment plant. That would be phase A at a cost of approximately $40.3 million. That would increase the percent capture metric from about 70 up to 82. So that's a very high value project. to work towards that 85% capture goal. But it's not enough, so we need to do some more. And that's where the Deckers Creek Interceptor Replacement Project would come in. Phase B there would be the $65.7 million, so very significant investment along that corridor, and would get you above that 85% threshold. Those other two projects could be in the wings. You know, Deckers Creek pumping station replacement project could help you get a little bit more flow pushed through. There are a couple of CSOs along the Mon to the south of that station which could, there could be some more flow that gets pushed north. And then under this suite of alternatives, we evaluated remote wet weather treatment. That would be like instead of a pumping station, you actually have a little mini wastewater treatment plant that only treats wastewater during wet weather. Under this suite, we would not need to do that to meet that 85% capture, but it was something that was evaluated during our process. So we're now in the final stages of preparing the long-term control plan report update, as well as working through some agency coordination. Things we didn't talk about today were a collection system characterization and hydraulic modeling. That's really all the, we put flow meters in the ground and built the computer model to simulate your system. That's how we came up with the metrics, the 85% capture and how we use that tool to estimate the improvements that the system would see if we went through with all the projects that we recommended. We came up with a suite of different treatment and conveyance alternatives. Obviously, we presented the recommended ones today, but we can go into discussion on any of the other options that we considered if there's interest. And then finally, what we need to do is prepare this report. It's going to include the recommended projects as well as a proposed implementation schedule, and we prepare that for MUBS approval and then ultimately submittal to DEP, who would be the agency that would have ultimate approval with feedback from EPA. Coming out of this, I think Eric can field any questions about the next step on MUB's side, but we'd be looking to button this report up and have it to MUB so they can move it on to the next step in the next couple of months. So that, I think Eric wanted to come back up here and field some of the questions, but Scott and I are definitely around to answer any technical questions you have.

Thank you, sir. And we do have some other items to talk about, but that's a separate agenda item. So we'll go ahead and finish this one first. As Scott and Sam said, we do feel it's very important to have separation and to not have CSOs in our waterways. In fact, I was pretty militant on that when we began talking about it. And fortunately, we have good engineers, consultants who were able to explain in a little more than 16 slides to us why this is a much better route for us to go at this point. Because if we were to aim strictly at the separation alone, we would be looking at a horizon that would have DEP and EPA forcing our hand at doing projects like this so that doing this now gets us to be able to get to that 85% threshold or more and then continue to work on separation or as Scott said, decombination throughout the system going forward. It's something that we want to make sure that this is not pivot away from separation. We want to make sure that we continue to do that. Councilman Downs has been doing great work on the Deckers Creek corridor and that's something that I believe is vital to our city's future and something that we've had our back turned to for quite a long time largely because it's where the sewers went. And same with the Mon River. So this is something that we'd like to be able to go ahead and move forward with in the not too distant future. And in doing so, we would be looking at slight increases in our wastewater initially. With this long-term control plan, we would be doing a two-step phasing of an increase. The first would be for the true planning. They have done great work, but we need, these are not construction documents. While the numbers showed $150 million on going with that first phase, We hope it's 150 million. We hope it's less than 150 million. We don't know what it's going to be until we have the designs done, until we have construction documents that are able to go out to bid with it. So with that, we would be looking at an $0.11 increase per 1,000 gallons, which would take our sewer rate from $10.69 to $10.80 for the work that's going on at the wastewater treatment plant. For the work that would be going on in Deckers Creek, we would be looking at an increase from 1069 to $11.23. So that would be a 54 cent per 1,000 gallon or $1.83 for the $3,400 average, which is what uh which is what the average bill player pays on a monthly basis uh and we go by monthly but dollar 83 per month increase is what we'll be looking at and that would be for uh people on them above sewer and in the deckers creek resale customers the first one that would be the wastewater treatment plant upgrades that would uh impact those two as well as um the Canyon and Scott's Run and all of our resale customers and Westover and elsewhere. So anything that flows into the Star City plan would be paying for those upgrades. Anything that flows through the Deckers Creek sewer would be paying for those upgrades. Happy to take any questions.

So Eric, we're not meeting the objective requirement of 85% capture today. Where are we? We're at 70%. 70%, yeah. And we're behind on implementation of the plans from the last long-term control plan. I have not gone back and looked at those. But I will say that I'm concerned about that. As you know, this is a huge priority. And I want to see this move forward with as much priority as possible.

I'm with you on that. I'm at this point the second longest tenured member of the board, but it's still right around four or five years that I've been on the board. And so it's something that talking about wanting to make sure we get done because it's something I've seen. I used to live in in Lexington and the EPA came down very hard on the Lexington Fayette Urban County government for their CSO issues and made them enter into a consent decree and it's something that I want to make sure that

any future epa or dep does not do here right and this i mean this is a hundred year old infrastructure that we've we've inherited and and it's it's not going to be fun dealing with it it's going to be expensive but we absolutely have to do it because the alternative is even uglier. Yes, it is.

It's not quite as bad as what was before 100 years where we're just going straight line into the waterways, but as you know, down in Deckers Creek about a year ago, we were basically doing that when you found the hole in the sewer down there, and we have been able to pump around the issue at the Mon Interceptor right now, and so that's something that we want to make sure we're able to ward off future concerns such as that.

Thank you. So the recommended actions are increasing the volume at the Star City plant, the amount of water that can be processed during storm events.

Increasing capacity for treatment, yes.

And then with Deckers Creek, There's pumping, which I understand is not necessarily on the schedule. There's moving the pumping station. Is that one of the two preferred projects or that's not one of the preferred projects?

That's one of the alternative projects with the new pumping station. So it's something that's definitely a possibility. It would get us, I think it was a $15 million charge.

Yeah, it was one of the ones that didn't, that's not, that's not. That's the estimate before.

Right, yeah. And remember, this is something, too, that is, these are, these are all, this is the plan. You know, this is something for us to talk about, something for us to consider as we're looking at the overall pricing. Gentlemen, if you could tell me when I get to the right slide.

I think it's back towards the end.

Yeah, it's right near the end. It's like third from the end or something. Keep going. Further.

Yeah, the first one I looked at, that's cool. But this is something for us to look at. We want to make sure that we are not putting too much of an impact on our rate payers, but we also need to balance that with what's best for our community as a whole. And so...

So interceptor replacement, is that... So you were talking for a while about two different pipes. Is that just replacing the pipe that's there, or is that creating a second pipe? Yeah.

Do you want me to come? Let me explain this one more time. So this would be what that alternative covers. So right now there's an existing pipe that runs south of the creek right now. You've seen it and you shouldn't see it. Usually the pipes are buried below the ground, not hanging off the side of a cliff. So the idea would be that pipe would be completely abandoned. and it would be replaced with a completely new pipe on the north side. So we wouldn't be relying on that hundred year old or very old infrastructure anymore. And we developed two alternatives. One was a completely gravity option. And what we would recommend would be a combination of gravity sewer on the north side, similar to what you have now, but it would be relocated for constructability. And then it would be pumped with a smaller force main. back to the mouth of the creek and tie in.

So show us where the force main would go.

The force main is the yellow line. It would essentially run parallel to the bike path right now.

So are we talking about then replacement pipe and a separate force main pipe as part of this

you keep the existing pipe where it is until the new pipe is constructed. Then you would flip the switch and all the flow that goes to the old pipe would go to the new pipe and you wouldn't need the old pipe anymore. So there would only be one pipe? One pipe.

It's one pipe.

One pipe. But some of it will flow by gravity. And then it'll go to a pump station and then some of it will be pumped. The reason we consider that is because by falling by gravity, you have to keep it going down, down, down. And by the time you get to the mouth of the river, it could be 20, 30, 40 feet deep. And that becomes a constructability issue and a cost issue. So by pumping it halfway, now you can take it from 20 feet down and you bury it eight feet below grade. And it's a lot easier to construct that.

Can I ask for clarification when you're saying one pipe and abandon the old pipe, will we remove the old pipe or is it still going to be hanging out looking gross?

That would be something we'd have to figure out during kind of the preliminaries design piece. I think if there was an interest to remove it, we could remove it. Obviously removing it comes at a cost. You could remove portions of it and abandoned portions of it. That would, you know, you can do either of them and that would be something that would, you know, mobile would have discretion over during the design phase. Did I answer your question satisfactorily?

No, no. I get part gravity, part force main. There's already a force main, I guess, because there's a pumping station at the bottom. There's already a force main that goes, I know, part of the park there.

Yes. So the pumping station is at the mouth of the river. That pumping station does have to remain. We can't get rid of that pumping station. It doesn't have to get bigger, but it has to stay there. And so there will always be a pumping station and a force main. Several years ago, I think in the early 2000s or 2010, MUB constructed a three-foot force main from that pumping station all the way to the really sort of treatment plant. That's more than they can use now with that existing pumping station. So we would be tapping into that pumping, that force main, and using, you know, the pipe that's already in the ground to get the flow to the plant.

Okay. And the cost from the yellow, that was up there, right?

So everything shown here, the new gravity in red, the pump station, which is the yellow square, the forest main, the local sewer improvements, you know, restoration, you know, limited restoration, to put it backwards at now, that's in the $65.7 million number. And those are costs, you know, costs in today's dollars.

So this is going essentially between the creek and the trail?

Yes. The alignment has not been, you know, the alignment has not perfectly been lined up, but there is, you know, we believe that there's enough space in that area that you could construct this option.

There's a few places that it would be tricky.

Yes. There's a few bridges. You know, you've got to go underneath. It might not be perfect, you know, dig it with a backhoe constructed. There might be some boring or something in limited segments, but we've also tried to incorporate some of those. costs to the best that we can given the information we have right now.

If you look at what's currently in there, clearly OSHA did not exist back in the time where that was put in. That is obviously not a good place to work. I don't know how the heck they put it in to begin with, but that was an engineering feat that was probably unnecessary.

And how long does it take, would it take to do all that? Ten years? A decade?

Um, that, you know, we would need to probably take a year and a half, two years to do the design of it, you know, between preliminary design, gathering information, put it up to bid, have bids in hand. And then from there, um, I'm not a, I'm more of a treatment plant guy than a pipe guy, but it would be, you know, it would be at least five years before, you know, maybe even a little bit more.

And then there would be considerations and part of the discussions that we'd be having on the board, part of the discussions we'd be having with you all about do we want to tackle multiple projects at the same time as this one where it goes CONSECUTIVELY INSTEAD OF CONCURRENTLY, THINGS THAT ALL NEED TO BE DECIDED AND THINGS THAT WE'VE ASSESSED AS WE GET ON WITH THE PLANS, BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, AS I SAID, THESE PRICES, THESE ARE TODAY'S PRICES, AND THEY'RE ESTIMATES OF TODAY'S PRICES. AS YOU GUYS KNOW, ANY TIME YOU DO A PROJECT, ALL OF OUR FRIENDS IN THE ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURAL BUSINESSES MAYBE SOMETIMES THEY UNDERESTIMATE WHAT THE PRICES MIGHT BE, AND THE ECONOMY CAN HELP CHANGE THAT DRASTICALLY IN A MATTER OF MONTHS. SO HOPEFULLY IT'S SOMETHING THAT WE'D BE ABLE TO DO ALL AT ONCE, BUT COSTS WILL BE SOMETHING THAT WE WOULD NEED TO CONSIDER AND BRING THAT ALL ON THE RATEPAYERS AT THE SAME TIME AS WELL.

HAVE WE IDENTIFIED places where the volume could be reduced. Like if there's any low hanging fruit of an entity or a set of entities that add a lot of storm water to the system that there could be some separation as we're moving forward.

That's something that is going on as we, anytime we do a project, that's something that we're looking at and are already doing the separating. It's one of the things that the wet water treatment at Valley Crossing or in and about that area would aim at as you can see well that that would be a one percent capture difference um for around 31 million dollars so there are things that are looked at and considered on what can be done uh in those scenarios and so that's that has been one of the things and new construction is required to have separation At no point at this point are you able to put any sort of stormwater into the sanitary. That said, it can happen illicitly. I've told you guys the story of shortly after I joined the board, I had an issue with my sewer. A contractor came out with my sewer and with my stormwater, and the contractor said, oh, we can just put it into the sanitary system. And the answer was expletive no from my part. But that happens, clearly. And some folks may not know to say no in a situation like that.

Do we do monitoring of new construction? And then also... Do other communities have incentive programs for people, for individual property owners and business owners, some sort of incentives for separation?

As far as, yeah, so when things are under construction, to do taps, you guys are out there and you look at where the sewer and storm water lines are. Even I know when I had that issue at my house, a mob came out and did a dye test in one of my storm drains to make sure that they didn't see it in the sanitary. Yeah, as new things are going up, they are doing those tests to ensure. And as far as incentives, locally, no, but as far as... Yeah, but in the future, that would be a neat... Absolutely.

I'm not sure what type of incentives, but I'm sure that people would be willing to tell us what type of incentives.

Well, what they'd like.

They might appreciate it.

Any other questions on the long-term control plan? Eric has another presentation to make in a second. And we're right here to hear it.

Excellent.

Look at that. All right. I wanted to talk with you guys about a few other things that we're working on at MOP. I'll start with we're also talking about working on a few water projects, including the Monon Boulevard water line. And we're... looking at also construction of a new shop garage down at our headquarters, as well as renovations to our office space at MOB as well. And so with that, we would be looking at about a $17 million increase on that, which would... Would you mind moving the microphone?

I'm being told they can't hear you. Use the other one.

Oh, I was talking to the wrong one.

I think it's like a, it's not a one or the other. I think it's a both kind of situation.

And also I could just talk louder.

Use that radio voice.

You don't want to hear it. The design and construction we'll be looking at phase one would be about a $17 million increase and design of phase two would be about a $3.6 million increase with a roughly 20% increase spread across the tariffs of mud, water, and fire protection. So we would be looking at the current mobile rate for water going from $6.36 to $7.63 on the minimum bill, which would be $1.27 increase per 1,000 gallons, or $4.32 increase for the average $3,400 gallon a month. And so that would take the $3,400 from $21.62 to $25.94. And so that all these things that we're talking about obviously We as a board have not Officially reviewed or approved any changes to the tariff and when and if we do then we come to you guys for the final say on that I just wanted to make sure that we're here letting you guys know about this and have those conversations as far in advance of those votes being taken as possible. Also, as we've discussed previously when we had Star City merge into our system, we have been in conversations with with the town of Westover since early 2023 when they initially came to us with a request to take over their system. At that time, our response was it was something that we would be interested in doing. However, given the work that they said needed to be done, including a significant increase in their rates, that's something we wanted them to do on their own before we were to bring them into the MUB system. And so since then, in May of 2024, we signed an operations and maintenance agreement with Westover. And in that same month after they had, in that same month, it took effect a 36.67% increase in their sewage rates. They went, and this is depending on my math, they went up to $7.43 per 1,000 gallons. They went from $7.43 per 1,000 gallons to $11.74 per 1,000 with a minimum monthly cost of $23.35. Meanwhile, Morgantown costs $10.69, so $1.05 less per 1,000. and that 1069 is also the monthly minimum compared to the 2335 that would be in Westover. And also since then, they have undergone the cost of putting in a new lift station and doing the work that we're all familiar with in Holland Avenue, and those two projects Just construction wise combined for about a six million dollar bill I'm not sure what they ended up paying for design and and all that work on top of all that work that goes into the construction so all that has Either been completed or is going to be completed here in the next 45 days And so in short order this would be considered a PSC, and then we'd come to you guys for the tariffs. And so I wanted to make sure that we were here informing you of that as early as possible. Oh, yes. Water treatment plant.

I didn't mean to cut you off. All right, thanks sir. Okay, so good evening. Scott Stearns again with Strand. So we have, just here to give a review of the water system master planning update. So what is a water system master plan? So tonight we're gonna talk about the recent water master plan, what was done with it, what were some of the changes What was our approach? Present the finding and the projects that were identified during planning and then summarize costs and next steps and funding. So what is the purview of the master plan? It shows a legend showing the water treatment plant, all the tanks in your collection system or your distribution system and all your pumping stations as well as the active pipes that are in the system. So it's a wide ranging area and all of these assets were looked at in the master plan. So forecasted growth, one of the things that happens in the master plan is we pick a planning period, and this is a 25 year planning period, so 2025 to 2050. The magenta squares, so on the y-axis you see pumping, million gallons per day, and then you see timeline on the bottom x-axis. So the magenta squares are the actual average daily flow capacity requirements of the water treatment plant. The blue triangles are the max day from those individual years. And so what happened is that we didn't have data for the future. And so we tried to predict what happens in the future. And as you can see, one of the interesting things is that if you look at the max day, at about 2030, the plant is kind of reaching its capacity where there's going to be days where the capacity required is going to be equal to the plant capacity at 16 million gallons a day. So it's probably an improvement that needs to be done in that area. So the master planning work culminates in projects to maintain MUB's water system. So the planning activities, as I mentioned earlier, we're looking at water main projects starting at 12 o'clock, three o'clock elevated storage, six o'clock customer metering, automatic meter reading, booster station projects, and then all that rotates around the water treatment plant upgrades. So with that, I'm going to pass it to Sam, and Sam's going to dive into some of the improvements that we talked about here. So with that, Sam. Thank you.

All right. Unlike the long-term control plan that we just talked about, the goal of the master planning effort was to identify where the needs are and come up with projects to fill those needs. So the first set of projects is related to the distribution system. These projects are identified to help move treated water reliably and efficiently to its customers. Within this distribution system project umbrella, we've got three different areas that we focused on. Looking at the booster station projects, those pump the treated water out through the pipes. Water main projects, the pipes that carry the water, and then elevated storage tank projects, which provide a buffer in the system as well as maintain pressure. The first system-wide distribution system project that we identified was a telemetry upgrade project that is needed to replace aging communication and control equipment. Everything that's remotely pumping, moving water in the distribution system is connected by a series of radio antenna. It's called the telemetry system. And that radio equipment is reaching the end of its useful life. The manufacturers no longer manufacture the parts and eBay is running low on spare parts, so we need to upgrade these systems so that they can continue to talk to each other and communicate and get water where it needs to go. There are about 81 remote facilities that have this radio equipment as well as programmable logic controllers or PLCs which are kind of like the brains that control each of the sites and call back home to the SCADA system at the water treatment plant which the operators monitor. So this project would be replacing that equipment as well as improving and doing miscellaneous electrical and instrumentation work to make sure that the new equipment is compatible with what's existing. The figure on the right hand side is what the water treatment plant operators see in their master computer, all those remote sites. And so really the goal here is to make sure that uninterrupted connectivity, either with new radio equipment or considering cellular data as well. The second set of projects, we have identified kind of two types of projects. The first addresses critical infrastructure condition and resiliency. So part of the master planning process would be looking at the age and condition of the assets and making sure that they have the useful life that they need. Four projects were identified coming out of that evaluation. Two of them are rehabilitating existing above ground storage tanks at the mile ground and Greystone sites. One of those might be familiar to you if you go by the airport or fly in. That's kind of the checkerboard painted one. So these tanks, you know, there's not too many moving parts, but they have coatings that help protect the structure. And those coatings have reached the end of their useful life both on the exterior and on the interior of the tanks. So a project would be done at each site to remove the old coating and put a new coating in as well as do miscellaneous modifications and improvements to, you know, replace the squeaky valve and replace the light bulbs up at the top. The third project on the list is adding a generator at one of the booster stations that doesn't have any emergency backup power now. Most of the other sites do, but the Wilesill station does not, and so a new natural gas or diesel generator is being considered there to add that backup power supply. And then fourth, there's an existing water main along Mount Boulevard, kind of runs along the road but then takes a sharp twist and runs up a very craggly, kind of steep cliff. That is becoming a problematic piece of pipe for MUB and they want to look at replacing that but Rather than replacing it in the existing alignment, which would be costly and difficult to get at, we're looking at relocating it so it's more along the right-of-way, the existing roadway. So you not only have a new pipe, but in the future when you do have to work on it, it would be in a much better place.

A new window?

Put a new pipe in so it's easier. It's a new pipe, and it's an easier place to maintain.

Got it.

The map here shows the different projects. You can see they're kind of spread out. So these are the most critical projects that will be done in the near term at the two tanks, at the booster station, and then along Mont Ballard. Then there's a second set of distribution system projects that were identified using the water system model that was developed as part of the planning process. And these projects are there to address bottlenecks. Trouble moving water from one area of the distribution system to the other. And there's really three areas that we're focusing on here. One is in the Union Zone. And so there would be a new booster station as well as an extension of water main coming out of that station that would be able to move water more effectively out, you know, away from the water treatment plant into some of the further reaches of the distribution system. This would be a brand new booster station and brand new piping. There would also be the next project, both point number three would be a Saverton booster station improvement. That would be to replace an existing booster station that's undersized and put it in a position that they would eliminate some bottlenecks and pump around some tankage so that you're able to move that water without having to cycle it through a couple different tanks. And then finally the fourth bullet point is a water main project. And that would be an addition of 12 inch water main, basically an extension that would connect two different parts that are not connected now that would allow water to flow more efficiently through the system there. So the map on this next slide will show where those different water main projects and booster station projects are located. Moving away from the distribution system itself but still staying away from the water treatment plant, the next project that was identified by MUV staff is improvements to the automated meter reading or AMR equipment. And this would provide improvements to customer metering as well as benefits to MUV staff. Automated meter reading technology allows you to collect water meter data electronically, so you don't have to go up to the meter and read the numbers and write it down in your book. You can drive by with a car, collect it with an antenna, and it automatically feeds that in to the billing system that MUBS is using. MUB, replacing all the meters in the system with an AMR-type project is a big undertaking. So MUB has chosen to kind of start this project in pieces. The first phase, they've identified about 4,500 meters, including all of their large meters, which are two inches and greater, as well as about 4,000 meters that are indoor. and this would include meters that they have classified to be kind of difficult to access or in unsafe areas where it's kind of hard to get to or you gotta you know get around a dog or there's have been issues with their kind of current meter reading program The key benefits of this program not only are to get data more efficiently into the billing system, but also to improve efficiency from their staff collecting the data that they need to pass it to their customers, improving working conditions and especially safety of the staff as they have to go in some of these unsafe locations, and enhancing customer experience because their data is collected more reliably and made available to them in a quicker pace. The last thing I'll talk about then is switching gears a little bit and focusing on the water treatment plant and the improvements that we can make there to address capacity and condition concerns. The existing water treatment plant just down on the banks of the Mon River has many different treatment processes. I'm not gonna go into all of them, but I will say that the last major modification was in 2010, so that's now 15 years ago. Anything that was light blue color was built during that last project. Anything that's green or in the dark blue shading was either had a major modification or was touched in some way of the project, but there's still a couple of areas that are kind of original to the existing plant that weren't touched the last time. And one of the major ones is the River Water and High Service Pumping Station, which houses the equipment that's responsible for pumping all of the water that's treated by the treatment plant out into the distribution system. So it is wonderful if you've got all the treatment facilities in good condition making the water, but if you have pumps that can't push it away to everybody, you're in for a little bit of trouble. So that equipment is, some of it is over 50 years old, and so MOB is interested in doing a project Actually really the impetus of this project was to make sure that pumping capacity was addressed. I see a question.

Pardon, is that the beige or orangey building?

Yep, right by the door.

Okay, thank you.

So again, the purpose of this master planning effort is to identify the needs. And so this slide summarizes the different needs. I've got to put them in two categories here, major improvements, and then some more smaller rehabilitation replacement, maybe not less important, but more of a laundry list of things that just need to be replaced. The four major items that we would cover with this project are constructing a brand new high service pumping station on the recently kind of acquired and cleaned up Dinsmore site, which is directly north. of the existing treatment plant site. Building a new station allows you to put in the right size pumps to majorly improve the layout of the building. Right now they have a bunch of pumps that are huge and no real way to get them in or out safely. So there'd be new cranes, improving piping, which is good for hydraulics and distribution, and then adding resiliency and metering. We'd be looking at replacing most of the chemical systems that are located in one of their existing chemical buildings. Those are all pumping and holding chemicals is a pretty hard job so that equipment needs to be replaced after 15 years. We are looking at building a brand new chlorine disinfection facility. This would house the chlorine gas that they use for disinfection of the water and to create that chlorine residual in the distribution system. Right now that is, that chlorine gas is stored in cylinders in a special room, but that room is within the building where other chemicals are stored and the same, you know, it's where the operator break room, offices, lab are. So we would propose to move that into its own standalone building. That would be, you know, bring it up to current codes and standards for safety of that kind of equipment and just generally improve the safety for everybody around. That would also include scrubbers, so in the event that one of those cylinders would leak it would be contained within the building and that is equipment that they currently do not have right now. Then the last major improvement would be administration facility upgrades. Right now the building is not accessible via ramp or anything, it's just stairs and there's some issues with the current layout of the building and the IT. So improving working conditions, access for the public as well as infrastructure and resiliency by creating some controlled spaces to house computer and SCADA. The rest of them, I'm not gonna go through that rehab and replacement, but there are a number of areas that we would also touch for a project this large. The benefits, like I mentioned, reliability. We'd be renovating that 50-year-old pumping station, bringing it up to current day and address age of equipment and infrastructure, mitigate chlorine gas hazards, student proof safety by removing them from their operator building, and then enhance the existing facility. The most fun slide is the last one, the summary of costs. So MUB has begun, or similar to what we were talking about in the long-term control plan, sort of a two-phased approach here. This slide covers what has been discussed for phase one. The telemetry project would include the design and construction, the distribution system projects. The first phase would be design and construction. These are relatively straightforward. So moving forward, both design and construction make sense, as well as that first phase of the automated reader reading program. The next two line items would be just design only. The goal there would be preliminary design as well as final design to really hone in on that scope before committing to doing the bigger project. So the distribution system phase two projects we discussed as well as the water treatment plan improvements. So the total for this phase would be about $18 million and then additional costs would be identified following the design of the projects there. So that's an overview of kind of the main findings of the master plan and what MUB has indicated they'd be interested in moving forward with in the near future. So again, Scott and I are here to answer any technical questions and Eric can talk to you about kind of the intentions of the board.

As I mentioned, what we'll be looking at with Phase 1 would be $18 million and then design of Phase 2 after that would be $3.6 million on top of that. We'll be looking at an increase of $1.27 per gallon. I'm sorry, per 1,000 gallon. We're talking about water, not gas. For 1,000 gallon and $4.23 for the average monthly bill, which would be $21.62 today to $25.94. And once again, all this is stuff that we would come back to. to this body for approval of after that's something that is voted on by the board as a whole.

Questions for Eric? Is there a funding plan for this?

that would be besides besides rate payers is there some sort of um yeah with all of this uh including the uh sanitary sewer we would be going for um grants as well and that's something we've had good success in doing and so whether it's uh congressionally directed spending or uh talking to um Water board down in Charleston. We would be hunting and searching for any and all dollars that would be able to go to this before we would be Putting it on the ratepayers, but it would be at best a combination thereof Okay, and then

With regard to aging infrastructure, and the infrastructure I'm familiar with is in Morgantown, but I'm certain that there's aging infrastructure besides the way that the system operates, and besides the corridor on Beechhurst, but throughout the system, aging infrastructure. How is that phased or planned for? Is that something that... I know that in Evansdale there was some pipelining going on, but I'm just wondering what the sequence is for that.

Yeah, obviously there's any time that there's emergency work that's needed and that gets handled, but there is years out worth of planning. We video the pipes to make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to do and as replacements are needed we do that working with the engineering department here at the city for timing up with the paving plans hoping to get kind of a half decade horizon on what's being planned there so if we've got projects that we want to get done in advance of paving being done that helps plan that out and so that that's something that Mike and rich are hard at work on throughout the year with the engineering department the maintenance department about So I understand that this is these are the major projects that require more planning and Those might be considered minor, but I know that People get concerned. Those are the end by and large. Those are the in-house projects. Yeah, those are you know, we We love Sam and Scott. They do great work. Our team looks at, on a daily basis, those types of things. We're talking about celebrating Centennial for a lot of our pipes inside Morgantown. But as developments are happening in and around town, as Roads are being reworked and if you saw what happened along Holland Avenue, they still need to go in and do the full substrate replacement there because all that work that happened last summer was on the infrastructure below that was I'm up was there doing a lot of a lot of pipe work to get that right and so when When the state comes in and hopefully does a big redo on on Spruce Street We do Spruce Street and all that

and I'm not sure whose expertise this is, when we have pipe lining going on, which I was previously unfamiliar with, but sounds like a really cool idea, and my concern is when you do pipe lining, then can you, after a pipe has been lined, can you then replace the roadway above it, or does it give it enough structure, and how long does a pipe, approximately, how long does the pipelining work or how long can you sort of count on the idea of a pipe lining in general compared to a replacement?

So the longevity I'll have to ask the gentleman behind me on, but I know that the beauty of the pipe lining by and large is you don't have to mess up the road. There'll be a small amount that might need to come up or maybe it's something that's accessible through one of the manholes to be able to do the lining. It's much more like an orthoscopic surgery. You're not doing a big cut to do something like that. But as far as the longevity... How long does that tend to? 30, 40 years. 30, 40 years of extending on the line. 30 to 40 years.

Once it's lined. When the underpinnings are washed away enough that the roadway is down a bit and then we do the lining so that it's functional underneath. I just didn't know then what you do is you don't You may not have to completely rebuild the road, but how do you handle the paving above?

I would imagine if we're seeing sinkage, that that's probably not aligning. That's something we'd come in and have to tear out at least that portion of pipe to fix the sub, what's underneath the road.

Do you do combinations? Do you do in an area, do you do combinations? Like if you wanted to redo the road, do you do combinations of lining and replacement?

Yeah.

I just know some of the, like for instance, Evansdale. I go to the Evansdale Neighborhood Association and they ask questions.

That's exactly how it works. And so before lining would be done, they go in and clean the lines and TV them. And if there are places that are bad enough to be causing sinking of the road or sinkholes, That more than likely can't be lined anyways. And so those little spots would have to be fixed prior to lining. And so we do spot repairs before the lining process takes place. And if there's a bunch of them and it makes sense to just replace them because there's a bunch of spot repairs in a row, then that's what we do is replace. So it's a combination.

So once you've sort of done an area, theoretically, then we could come back, we being the city, could come back and then rework the roadways above and it would be strong enough? Right, yeah. I'm not saying it'll never break or there's not a problem underneath it. I'm not asking for a guarantee. I'm just asking in general how that would work because I was curious.

It's a brand new pipe. And we like it a lot because if we were to replace, say, an old clay pipe, we wouldn't put clay back in there, right? And so it would be some sort of HDPE. plastic and this is a similar substance that would be way better than the clay pipes that are in the ground now and so it's it's going to be much more sturdy than what's in the ground currently once it's lined great yeah thank you and that was rich rogers the assistant gm from

And even in the conference room at MOB, we have an old wood pipe that dates back to some of the original work in and around Morgantown, which I don't think those lasted very long. Not really good at keeping roots out.

Other questions for Eric?

I have one not related to this, but do you know when Patterson will be starting?

The Loa Popenoe project?

Do you have a date on that?

We're talking about work along Burger King and that area. So last Friday we got our report. We hired Thrasher Engineering to do the evaluation from Kreps up to WVU. And we got the report Friday. So we have a meeting coming up end of this week to talk about that and finalize that report and recommendations. You know, we understand that that big culvert, 96-inch culvert, has got to be priority one. And that will be a project coming out of that plan. But there are some other stuff that they'd like to do, like, you know, the stream that's in front of Chick-fil-A needs some work. And, you know, there's other things that's going to be recommended as part of that plan. But as far as when work would occur, so it's really the preliminary engineering report that they're working on. um then they would have to go into the design i don't think the design of that rehab will take long but we would have to go through that design process put it out to bed and go through that whole process so okay it's still going to be a little while okay so we're talking about a year hopefully not that long but for that particular one we hope we can fast track that as much as we can because we've had cones up for a pretty good amount of time yeah yeah how far down will that project go I don't exactly know what the recommendations are yet, but two of the parts that I know will be part of it is the 96-inch culvert that's in front of Burger King goes from Raleigh Lane down to where it daylights before the Chick-fil-A property. It goes from a pipe to a stream. And then that stream from that point down to where it crosses back over Don Knotts and goes to Kreps.

Yeah.

There's going to be some work that's needed in that stream. And so I know for sure those two sections would be part of work.

Will it go down into Kreps Park?

Potentially, they've looked at that. That's part of what we're going to discuss this week. It wasn't in their original draft that they sent us any work inside Kreps, so we'll make sure that we ask what they found and figure out what they're recommending down there.

If you let us know what the design looks like and how far down it goes and how far up it goes, because I know Evansdale Neighborhood Association would like to know.

And I stay on top of it as well. Of course. Just, yeah, if it goes past Arby's into Kreps or maybe it stops by Arby's, yeah, before that road. Because I know there's a house there that's under a flood plan because it floods all the time, that house on the corner before Arby's or right next to Arby's.

Yeah, so the work that they've looked at does not include anything on that side of Patterson. So that's something that we're looking at internally. And so we have done, and that's part of a future lining project would be over there in that area, Suncrest Inn. And right now we're concentrating on the area around Standard Avenue, Standard Street. And then the next, you know, Suncrest is one of the future projects that we're going to look to do some lining over there, which would help with the issue you're talking about. So not something that'll be part of thrashing. That's fine, yeah.

When you get to the point where you're doing a lining project in a neighborhood, whichever neighborhood, we would love to know so we can help educate people about that there might be a smell.

Sure. That would be very much welcome.

Good to know.

Thank you, guys. Whenever you know.

Any final questions for Eric?

Thank you all, much appreciated.

Our next item of correspondence is a presentation on the CDBG Fiscal Year 2026 Annual Action Plan.

Thank you, Mayor. Please to talk briefly about the annual action plan before we get started on that discussion. I do want to report, and I'm thrilled that the city has met its timeliness requirement testing for the prior years. So that is, last time we talked, something that was hot on our radar to make sure that we were rowing hard to meet those timelines. We're pleased with that progress. So what you have tonight, and there is no action before you, this is slightly in advance of our normal process, but we wanted to back the calendar up a little bit and provide you all an opportunity to see the draft annual action plan. to provide some comments. So we are within our public comment period, which runs through May 26. I know the document says May 25, but that is Memorial Day, so we will accept public comment through May 26. and then you will see this come back before you in June for adoption. So as you know, the city is an entitlement community under the CDBG and we receive funds through HUD and we must adopt an annual action plan that aligns with our five-year consolidated plan. There are several requirements to identify projects under this program in order for them to be eligible and the city's anticipated contribution for this upcoming fiscal year just over about four hundred and sixty thousand dollars so this proposed annual action plan the main focus on the projects that we've identified is continuing and wrapping up funding of projects that were previously identified or in progress such as the lower greenmont green space and reconstruction of pennsylvania avenue and duckers creek boulevard so We're continuing to allocate a portion of our annual amount to public services supported through nonprofits that are eligible, have successfully gone through the application process and meets those requirements. And there is an additional program proposed to align with our efforts related to housing. That would be a in conjunction with the housing authority a healthy home rehabilitation program so you all have the the documents and materials in front of you that outlines that draft plan we do have chris fletcher here with udv and robin hess who is our grants writer who certainly have navigated and been through these annual action plans many times with you all but we wanted to bring it before adoption period to provide a comment period for council to provide any feedback for us Chris, is there anything you'd like to add before we dive into any questions?

Yes, I think you wanted me to maybe take a little bit of a deeper dive as far as process goes. So the annual action plan preparation really started back in October of last year with the completion of the FY 2024 CABR. It's the annual report, Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report. The city reached out to and consulted with prior sub-recipients in October and November that received CDBG funds and years prior to get an understanding of progress that was made, particularly those that were funded in 2025, lessons learned, what their needs are. We also took October, November, and December to collect data analyze the data in terms of housing, employment, households, poverty level changes, homeless data on point-in-time account data, and then the schedule that's in front of you really started moving a lot more faster. December the whole public needs meeting and during that time from December through November the city was in regular contact with residents who participated in some fashion or other in previous years, stakeholders, housing providers, social service providers, just general engagement. FY 2026 2024 through 2028. So again, in earnest, the annual action plan really got started back in October and is coming to the point where it's on public display, as Ms. Miller stated, and it will be scheduled to come before you for formal action here in a couple weeks. As far as the types of projects and programs that are proposed in the draft, General administration obviously offset the cost for running the program. Public services, there are three public service activities. Then there is a 15% cap on public services, how much money can be invested in there in that particular area. Mesa intervention services has been a long standing program that the city has partnered with for many, many years. I think going back to the mid 1990s, That is proposed to continue that relationship for youth intervention and delinquency intervention. Legal aid, this would be the second year of funding legal aid. that Ms. Miller mentioned is West Virginia Windward. There hasn't been too many opportunities in recent years to try to advance employment and workforce training, so this is a great opportunity to partner with the city to partner with West Virginia Windward. The housing project program is a pilot program with the housing authority. The city had a long relationship with the Housing Authority years ago to owner occupied rehabilitation. Unfortunately, that program became extremely difficult to manage, given the federal requirements across the country have seen their entire annual formula basis on this reduced. I believe this is the third year that the CDBG allocation nationally has stayed flat. As I'm sure you all can understand the value of the dollar, it's harder and harder to stretch when your allocation is declining. The pilot program is an opportunity to try to slightly go back into the rehab focusing on replacing hvac systems failing systems failing hot water tanks and family worries why those three particular areas were selected because that doesn't trigger a lot of more expensive more complicated program challenges that the city had to walk away from years ago so hopefully that will be successful and then the public improvements and two public approval projects they're not going and then the reconstruction of Pennsylvania Avenue, Debra's Creek Avenue, along the frontage of the Great Space. A lot of that attention to Lower Greenwood really started back in 2013 when the comprehensive plan was identified as an area of opportunity that was adopted by the city in 2023, that area is still a priority opportunity. So over the course of the decade, the surgence of public investment really I think started with the ARPA funds that the city dedicated, allocated in that particular area. Properties have been acquired either by the city an excellent vision to secure $2 million in the . And then multiple fiscal years of CDBG funds, I think, are creating some great public space improvements down there in terms of mining conditions removing, acquiring properties, tearing properties down. You know, the bank along Decker's Creek there has been, you know, since COVID, an area of challenge And now those properties are being assembled. And then, you know, the bridge space is planned. The pedestrian bridge that flanks that particular site, you know, that contract was awarded recently. So, again, just primary projects over a course of, you know, over a decade. And finally the resources to make a significant change in that particular area of the community.

Any questions for Mr. Fletcher?

Sure. We had two public hearings on this item. We had no attendance. Is that right?

Correct.

So how are we advertising this?

And certainly we want to continue to push it out. We are required to do different publications in the newspaper, but making sure that by bringing this forward more actively in advance, giving more publication to this, and we can certainly push out some social media on this as well.

Okay. And the application refers to a section in here that would have public comment, but I suppose that section doesn't exist because there were none. Right. Okay. Do we have any reports that reflect the performance of our past, the people that we funded in the past?

we'll have to, not off the top of my head, I'll have to dig into this.

Like this legal aid program. I know you said you had some numbers on it. So I was wondering if we had something that was more detailed.

Sure. Robin has the city's grant record.

What we normally do is all the nonprofits have to give a quarterly report, and then they do a final report. And their final report, I can pull out of anyone you want to see, and everyone has been successful for what they've done.

Okay.

And so, yeah, we do. And those are the kind of stats, the data that we send into the feds.

Okay. I think it might be helpful for folks to see.

If I could add to that, I had mentioned earlier the 2024 CAPER, the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report, that's the most recent one. The entitlement community must submit its annual report, its CAPER report, within 90 days following the close of their fiscal year. So for the current fiscal year that we're in right now, 2025, that caper will be prepared for a public display and submitted in the 90 days following July 1, 2026. The capers, previous capers are available. They're public documents. There's actually public posting of that. And they're also in my office. Individual activities. I had mentioned the legal aid with our 2025 money. Served 24 individuals. Mesa, with their 2025, served 72 youth and families. So it's a very data-driven, data-reporting program.

I think I would be interested, and I'm new to this process, so forgive me, but, and City Manager Miller, I do appreciate presenting this information sort of ahead of the decisions. I'm also interested in learning, and this is something we can do, you know, behind the scenes, but I'd like to be, I think, part of the conversation of who applies. You know, I know there's some eligibility requirements, but I would love to learn more about which organizations in our community are eligible, who might not be applying, and sort of zoom out and look at, you know, are we funding organizations that our community most needs that are eligible? I would just like to learn a little more about that.

And I have to say that You'd be surprised some of the agencies that they don't want. There's federal guidelines we have to follow. They have to be low-mod income, but they have to sign papers. They have to, there's different things they have to do. And you'd be surprised the directors of those nonprofits don't want to do that because they want to keep, you know, they want to keep the, you know, off of the customers. Because I've tried. probably I could name about seven, and I'm not going to do that in public. But anytime you'd want to come in and see, you all are welcome in my office for a couple months anyhow. You're welcome to come and look. All of the reports that we get, we have them in book form. They're in my office. I think I have them from 2019. I finally got some down into the basement. But anything you all want to ever see about CDBG, because it's probably one of the best programs the city has. I know that they're kind of looking at the federal level to doing away with them. Hopefully that doesn't happen. And I will probably come to you all and say, we need to start a petition or something that this doesn't happen. But it's probably one of the best programs that this city has ever had. And it does get better. In fact, we've always tried to wonder why People don't understand why we get so little dollars because we are Morgantown. Well, it's based on the census. And once that census was done, whenever CDBG started, they never change it because we've tried. We've tried to go to the senators. We've tried to go to the governors. And nobody will ever change it.

Well, I appreciate that, Robin. Thank you. I'll come see you. Yeah, come see me anytime.

If those capers are available online, you'll have to show me where they are because I am not. I'm fine in the States.

I have to admit, I haven't put the new one online yet because it's like 475 pages.

Where are the previous ones then?

Well, we usually take the one off whenever the new one comes out, and I haven't gotten the communications department. I haven't given that to them to kind of put it in a zip form.

Okay. My understanding is year to year, the criteria or what types of things are funded changes some, is that correct? Or is it consistent year to year?

It's usually consistent, but what we do is when we put together the five-year comprehensive plan, anything that's in there yearly and everything, we have to kind of show that this is the year that we were going to do this and this is what we're doing. But the comprehensive plan you all have approved in what, 2023, 24? 24.

24, yeah.

So everything that's in that comprehensive plan, when we get the action plan for like that one particular year, everything that's in the comprehensive plan, we have to be, that's our guideline to do what we're going to do that year.

Ah, okay. And HUD does a look at it. Because the plan differs year to year.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so it all comes from your comprehensive plan.

And then for some reason, those meetings, in spite of being, I think, fairly well advertised.

Oh, they're well advertised. And I have to say this, and I probably shouldn't say it, but when Emily came to me and asked me if I would take over the CDBG program seven years ago, I can stand here honestly and say I never had one of those meetings that anyone showed up in. I sit there for 45 minutes, and it's almost I feel like a college professor. It's like, OK, I'm not waiting the last 15. And I don't know why, because it is. It's in the newspaper. It's on our website. I call people. You know, you all are free to come. I mean, anybody can come to the meeting and ask any questions they want or anything, but I have never had anybody show up.

So maybe it means everyone's satisfied.

Well, I wouldn't say that.

No, but it is interesting. I don't know why, because usually our meetings are somewhat attended, but somehow that one

and we do them when we do them during the day so you know maybe we need to start changing them to in the evening or something but right now they're usually during the day but some people even for their job are available yeah yeah all right thank you thanks robin anything you'd like to just add some comment to that so um morgantown is not unique where there's a lack of participation during the annual action play

For instance, we, with the exception of Charleston and Parkersburg, we are preparing the annual action plans for six of the municipalities in West Virginia. And we have one, I think it was Wheeling that had one person appear at the public hearing this year. effort to get people to come to the public hearing. The public needs meeting, that first one, usually there's a little bit more interest because some of the applicants or potential applicants will come and try to learn more about the program and see if they might be interested in applying for funds. But the public hearing, that's not unique to Morgantown. Great.

Thank you, Robin. Thanks, Robin.

Thank you, Chris.

Nothing else on this item? No, ma'am. Thank you.

All right. We have no public hearings this evening. Our unfinished business is one item, boards and commissions. I believe we have a few nominations for boards and commissions. Councillor Hollingshead, did you have?

I do. I'd like to nominate Ruth Quigley for the Ward and Boundaries Commission.

Second.

All in favor? Yes. Great.

I'd like to nominate Alex Panger to the warden boundaries commission and the tree board. Second.

All in favor. Yes. Okay. And one more.

I'd like to nominate Cody Woodring to the tree board.

Second. All in favor? Yes? Great. We did not miss anyone, correct? All right, we will move into our public portion, subject to rules established by council, adopted by resolution. Generally, you have four minutes to speak. Please approach the podium. State your name and address for the record. No personal attacks. There is a sign-up sheet, but that is not a requirement to speak. which is good, there's no one on it. Is there anyone wishing to speak this evening?

Sorry, I was late. I'm for the National Youth Advocate program or the proclamation. I went to the courthouse. Oh, my bad.

That's okay.

Now you know where we are. I do, I do. And I know a lot of your names. I know Christine's probably heard my name before I used to work for the paper. I did your legal ads. So I know all of your names. I just haven't seen your faces. Well, my new job, I work for the National Youth Advocate Program. And as the proclamation stated earlier, May is National Foster Parent Appreciation. month and we just appreciate you guys uh you know filing that for us and presenting that it really does mean more than just a piece of paper it means you know your support to the children in the county and not and across the state and to the parents that need them as well the most current numbers today that i could find there's about 250 children just in mon county alone in the foster care system the whole state is about 6 000 so um there's multiple agencies across the state my agency has roughly about 130 homes or so and definitely not enough so like i said that is more than just a piece of paper and us it's your support and we thank you

Thank you. Thank you.

Might we suspend the rules to present? Sure.

Please. And if you have a moment, if we could snap a picture real quick. Of course. Right behind you. Wonderful.

Could you do a one more time with one more person?

Oh, thank you.

I appreciate it.

I appreciate the suspending the rules. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a good evening.

Thank you. Thanks, Christine.

Anyone else wishing to speak?

Good evening, everybody. Cal Carlson, 814 Ridgeway Avenue. I came to speak about the elections ordinance that's on the agenda for tonight on first reading. I sent you an email last night with some of my feedback about it. I really appreciate from the time last summer when you first proposed it. you know, kind of refining it. I do have one piece of it that I have some concerns about. I think starting with the 2032 election cycle as the SB 50 was amended to have you know, be the final deadline for it. I think that would make the most sense, especially for a municipality like Morgantown. Some of the other municipalities in our county who have already moved to the county ballot, they're basically all within one precinct. And Morgantown, I believe, is split into nine different precincts. We have seven wards. So thinking about how, you know, are wards going to align with precincts? Are we going to potentially look at our Ward and Boundaries Commission and move from going every other year looking at the boundaries to maybe once every 10 years like the legislature does with redistricting. So that's just some of my feedback about that. And also with that, that also allows more collaboration with our county clerk, with geospatial staff, making sure that the numbers that you start with, instead of starting in 2030, um where you're still using the old census numbers from 2020 and everything start fresh with the 2030 census start with the 2031 redistricting that way it's one big easy transition for everybody instead of grouping it back and forth so thank you all for your time and consideration thank you thank you anyone else wishing to speak this evening everyone else

All right, we will close this public portion. We will move into the consent agenda. There are four items on the consent agenda this evening. I will read through each item. If any council person has a specific item they wish to pull off of the agenda to consider individually, they can do that. Otherwise, we will entertain a motion and vote on these items all together. Item A, consideration of approval of a resolution amending fiscal year 25, 2026 budget for the Morgantown Municipal Sales and Use Tax Fund, revision one. Item B, consideration of approval of a resolution amending the fiscal year 2025, 2026 budget for the Morgantown Capital Escrow Fund, revision number seven. Item C, consideration of approval of a resolution amending the fiscal year 2025, 2026 budget for the Morgantown General Fund, revision number five. And item D, consideration of approval of a resolution amending fiscal year 2025-2026 budget for the Met Theater Fund, revision number one.

Move to approve.

Second.

Thank you. Clerk Wade?

Yes. Jody Hollingshead? Yes. Wheezy Michael? Yes. Ginny Salim?

Yes.

Mark Downs? Yes.

Deputy Mayor Butcher? Yes. Mayor Trumbull? Yes.

Yes. Passes six zero. And I believe city manager Miller would like to take a moment.

Yes. If I may briefly, if John and Jennifer, if you don't mind coming up real quickly to the podium, I know this was a consent item. But I did want to take a moment to recognize that Mr. Ferguson, this is his last meeting with us today. So I wanted to take some time to acknowledge the dedication that he has put in over the last several years to the city. Certainly, I know he has made my first year coming to the city better. he works closely with departments he always is willing to take the time to sit down with them and explain items he doesn't hesitate to dig into items and deal with difficult issues as they arise and try to find solutions so we're extremely happy for him in his next opportunity but he will be missed So wanting to take that time to make that public recognition. And if you haven't had the chance, I did want to introduce you to Jennifer Street. She is our assistant finance director and will be assuming the role of the interim finance director for the time being. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you both. Appreciate you, John. Thank you.

Appreciate you, John. Jennifer's going to agree. If she's under you, we know she will. Thank you.

She's a brave soul. I figured I'd want it before they squeezed out, so thank you for that moment.

We have no special committee reports this evening. We will move into new business. Item A, consideration of approval of a first reading of an ordinance of the city of Morgantown amending the city charter to require elections to be held on the May primary election date. Okay.

Thank you, Mayor. This ordinance will move the city election date from its current April odd year date to the May primary election date in even years in the future. As Council has discussed before, in 2025, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 50, which required that all municipal elections move to either the May statewide primary date or the November general election date. beginning at latest in 2032. In this past session, 2026, the legislature updated those amendments recognizing that there are some necessary transition provisions and that those involve often amending city charters So those updates, in part, provided a mechanism to ensure that governing bodies could make the necessary changes in the time required by Senate Bill 50, basically providing that any changes that are necessary to comply with the law can be made by adopting a conformity ordinance that does not require following the ordinary procedures for amendment of the charter. Generally, those transition provisions are going to be an interim transitional term that allows cities to resequence their council member terms so that they can move to an even year date, many are not or were not currently on an even year date, and then setting those new election dates. This ordinance in front of council is set up to comply with those new requirements which are now in West Virginia code 8-5-5 subsection f. In substance what it will do is continue the city's elections in 2027 and 2029 But instead of an election for a four-year term at those elections, there will be an election for an interim three-year term. You have the odd number of wards elected in 2027 for a three-year term ending in 2030, and the even number of wards elected in 2029 for a three-year term ending in 2032. Beginning in 2030, there would be an election conducted on the May primary date and then every two years thereafter the city would continue with its existing staggered terms for council members and continue otherwise with its election process. This ordinance also makes other necessary references to state code dates but otherwise leaves the city election process in place as much as possible.

questions for attorney simonton or motion as part of our due diligence if we conferred with the county about about prospective redistricting redistricting precinct changes administrative impacts

We've provided the ordinance drafts to the county clerk both previously when council was considering this as a charter amendment and then recently when it's been reformatted as an ordinance change. I know the county clerk was not able to devote substantial time to that, this current version, due to conducting those May elections, but I think the Ward boundary provisions are a separate item from what the city is required to do to comply with the change in the state law.

Sure, but if we have the opportunity to minimize those impacts, those prospective impacts, and we're not under any schedule pressure to do this, Does it make sense to allow us time now that the election is behind us to do a little more due diligence?

Well, so the ward boundaries will be set by council after a report of the ward boundary commission for upcoming elections in 2027, 2029, and then 2030 and going forward. Those dates and proceedings aren't impacted by this ordinance.

Right. I understood it.

Along the same lines, what would happen if we changed it one more term or we postponed our date a little bit and emphasized that we wanted to have redistricting every 10 years with the census?

So if council wanted to change the board boundary process, I believe you'd need to do that by a charter amendment under West Virginia Code 8-4-8. And you do have an option to do that by ordinance, but there's a separate process with public hearing notice for it. You couldn't use the process used to adopt this ordinance to make those changes because they're not necessary to make the changes required by Senate Bill 50.

Currently, the Warden Boundary Commission has to prepare a report on September 30th on each even year. Do we need to change that as well, given the changes we're making in this?

I think it's probably going to be a good idea to do that. They're going to make that change for the upcoming election. But it probably makes sense to do it with fresher data as we switch to an even year term.

OK.

It seems like it's necessary to make that change.

So you're saying we would make that change subsequent rather than with this?

Yes. I mean, I think if you're going to change that part of your charter process, you probably need to follow the charter amendment process. Yeah.

So we couldn't do it in the same bill because we couldn't follow the same process.

It's kind of necessary to make it work. It's interesting that it wouldn't be part of this. I know we have to do this.

Yeah, and again, just my preference would be that we that we take, we have the time, take the time to do a little more due diligence, coordination with the county, consideration of the things that Mr. Carlson brought up and, and, um, any, because, you know, I understand we don't know what's going to happen, but, um, I'd like to have their perspective. And if we haven't done that, then... Are you wanting to make some sort of a motion? Yeah, I'd like to see this change tabled for now.

Do we want to table it or just refrain from voting on it?

It doesn't matter? That's the option of council.

Okay. I'll second the table.

Clerk White?

On the motion to table. Okay. Jody Hollingshead? Yes. Weezy Michael? Yes. Jenny Saline?

Yes.

Mark Downs?

Yes.

Deputy Mayor Butcher?

No.

Mayor Trumbull? No.

That passes 4-2. We will move on to item B, consideration of approval of a first reading of an ordinance amending Article 153, conversion therapy.

Thank you, Mayor. The city's human rights code currently includes a definition of conversion therapy and also defines conversion therapy practice by a therapist with a minor as a discriminatory practice that's regulated by the human rights code and enforceable by the Human Rights Commission. The city in the past worked with the commission as well as ACLU of West Virginia to adopt that definition. along with a few other West Virginia cities. On March 31st, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its opinion in Child v. Salazar. That was a challenge by a therapist in Colorado to a similar statute regulating the practice of therapy in Colorado. that prohibited conversion therapy. The court opined in brief that the ordinance regulated top therapy in a way that violated the First Amendment. They described the ordinance as engaging in viewpoint discrimination and directed that it is subject to the strict scrutiny standard, whereas many jurisdictions that adopted these ordinances believed they were within a traditional line of regulation of medical practices. The city has, since that decision, received a letter from the Attorney General's office asking about its response to this decision. The ordinance before council tonight changes the definition of conversion therapy in the city code to exclude from that definition talk therapy when practiced without any other therapeutic modalities, which is intended to conform to the Supreme Court opinion indicating that talk therapy is protected speech that cannot be regulated in the way that these statutes do. If the council has any questions, I'd be happy to address those.

Questions for Attorney Sunnington?

Is there a motion? Move to approve.

Second.

Thank you.

Further discussion?

Sure. So I think we've all... had some discussion about different changes that we could make here. I think we're open to what changes could be made here, but we haven't been presented with a viable option other than this. And so I think that By making the change that we're making, we're not completely undoing what we've done in the past, but we're trying to conform with the law. I don't think there's much else to say about that.

It's pretty straightforward. It's pretty straightforward there. But let's be clear about this. We are a safe and welcoming city. Thank you. And this is the same with this council. So nothing will ever change that. So I just wanted to make that very clear. So that's all I have to say about this.

I think two ways. I think we would all find this practice important.

Yeah.

Absolutely. Just to say that out loud.

Clerk Waite?

Yes. Jody Hollingshead? Begrudgingly, yes. Wheezy Michael?

Yes, begrudgingly as well.

Jenny Saline? Begrudgingly, yes, as well. Mark Downs?

Yes.

Deputy Mayor Butcher?

Yes.

Mayor Trouble?

Yes. Passes 6-0. City Manager's report.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Just as we look forward, a reminder, we do have our upcoming next workshop next week. So to run through that, we at 6 p.m. will have a public input session on economic development. We will then come into the City Council workshop where we will have follow-up dialogue related to the topic of fiscal sustainability. And we will introduce and talk about the topic of enhanced amenities. As we look further into June, the next topic that will be up for discussion will be related to increased interconnectivity. So certainly as topics start to formulate on those items, feel free to share those And we can begin to get some information on that. I do anticipate and I thank the council for the open dialogue as we know that we were testing out this new process and what that looks like. And so I anticipate bringing back in June an opportunity for council to provide feedback on how the process has gone so far and how we may want to pivot or adjust further for future workshops. So I appreciate everybody's flexibility as we are feeling out what the new process is going to look like together. As a reminder, offices are closed on Monday, May 25th in observance and Memorial Day. And I do want to highlight that we do have another meeting scheduled with the DOH next week. So we continue to try to increase the dialogue related to that partnership with the DOH. So that concludes my report.

Thank you. Yes, Mayor. On the topic of elections, I know that I sent you all some invites. I know we have a year until our next election, but we're starting that process and scheduling the dates of the ballot draw and all those things.

We're going to need a new calendar.

So as we continue to schedule those and we'll put those on your calendar so you have them way ahead of time. That concludes my report.

Thank you. City Attorney.

Thank you, Mayor. City Council has been discussing business improvement districts as part of its fiscal sustainability options. I'll have a summary of the state law requirements and options for those out to you in city management for a guide in your future use coming forward soon. On a staff level, we've also We've begun talking about setting up recurring training sessions for our staff and our board and commission members. It would also be available to council members who might want to attend, so we'll provide some more information on those to you as well. That's all I have to report.

Thank you. Council members?

First, I wanted to say congratulations, obviously, to all the graduates this past weekend. It's been a very long weekend. We had about 3,600 students, I believe, that walked at the University this week. I was unable to attend the lighting of the towers because of my work schedule this weekend. So I wanted to thank Councilor Sleen for showing up for that. I also want to thank city manager, for stepping in my place for our health and wellness event we held at church in Westover. We met with some doctors and a couple of our health and wellness did a wellness check on the congregation, blood pressure, things like that. So it went very, very well. And I'm just so proud of our health and wellness group. They're a very good bunch of people. And I think that's all I really have to say today.

Thank you. I was out of town for our last meeting so I have a handful of things but I'll try to keep it brief. I was out of town for City Clerk Appreciation Week so I wanted to say thank you so much to both our clerk and deputy clerk. You've been so welcoming and helpful as I navigate my first term and I just really appreciate that. Regarding the MUB presentations tonight, I just want to state that the impact on ratepayers is a priority of mine, and I think all of ours. And hello, Councillor Abuganem. And that we intend to dig deep and prioritize keeping the increases as low as possible. Some fun things I've gotten to do over the last several weeks, I had the honor of speaking to several different classrooms, a couple college classrooms. and one at MHS about civic engagement and problem solving at the municipal level. And that is so fun and such an unexpectedly enjoyable part of this seat. And I appreciate the opportunity to connect with students at all levels This, let's see, the day before Mother's Day was a big day downtown. It was the Spring Arts Walk in the downtown Dash. I spent the afternoon downtown with friends shopping, looking at all the art. It was a really wonderful event. It was well done, so I wanted to thank Main Street Morgantown, our dedicated staff, and the downtown merchants that made that day really alive and special. That's what I asked for for Mother's Day, was a day downtown without my children. Let's see. Oh, I did participate in an event with elementary school students for Bridging Innovation Week, which was at the beginning of the month. We invented a machine that helps you get your snacks from the table without getting up with a young woman who was so fun to work with and so creative and inventive. And again, yet another way I got to connect with students. And lastly, I just want to reiterate Councillor Michaels' comments that Morgantown remains committed to being a safe city for everyone in the LGBTQIA plus community. We're in a difficult position and like Councillor Butcher said, all of us find this practice abhorrent and Also if you have any questions about the Supreme Court ruling and how that impacts policy at the municipal level, we're all happy to answer those questions.

That is all I have.

Thank you.

I've been enjoying the Farmers Market back in the Morgantown Marketplace this spring, Saturdays, and I'm just wanting to point out that there are a variety of mushrooms and vegetables and bedding plants and kombucha and baked goods and pepperoni rolls. grains and honey and it's interesting what you can do with a pepperoni roll to kind of vegetable it up so I buy sprouts and then we slice the pepperoni roll down the center and corrupt it with some vegetable matter and it's it's all lovely um also i i did attend the lighting of the water tower at the top of evansdale campus it now has lights behind the wv and president benson and a patient from the um Children's Hospital lit it together, which was really nice, and the Evansville neighborhood showed up and enjoyed some, I don't know what you call them, slushies, cone ice, and popcorn, and lots of nice conversation. And the lights will be, the lights can be changed, so they can be gold, can be blue, can be white it can be other colors like red but they say that it's not likely to be red very often so so they decided that it would um right now i think it's on gold and it'll stay on gold for a while until they figure out how to make it so that it can change in some kind of a pattern when they feel like it but anyway for right now it's it's gold behind the wv the blue wv that's up there and oh Suncrest neighborhood is having a picnic and it happens every year on Memorial Day weekend on the Sunday which I believe is the 24th and it's from 4 30 to 7 30 and there are some children's activities it's like a street like a street fair It's on Fairlawns and there's gonna be a steel drum band and it's public. 4.30 to 7.30. It's very nice. Oh yeah. No, I know about that. Okay. But that's not till June. So Evansdale has a picnic also, and that will be June 7th. And we will talk about that next time.

You're talking about Suncrest picnic made me remember. Oh wait, that's in my bag. Yes. Well, thank you. Yes.

Thanks. So with Memorial Day coming up, I just want to take the opportunity to thank all of our veterans for their service. I also want to publicly thank Senators Capito and Justice for putting forward their generous community project funding requests for the airport and our runway extension. It's just so important to our community. It supports our really foundational to our long-term economic growth and one of the few things that can raise our economic ceiling. So, appreciate them advocating so hard for that. Thanks to the mob folks that showed up tonight and their diligence. That was... Willing to ask questions. Yeah, their willingness to answer questions and provide data. That was quite a presentation and Q and A session. It's nice of you to release them early prior to executive session. But there are plenty more questions and there will be plenty more follow up. I think as Councilor Hollingshead said, our rate payers are, you know, of high importance and consideration for looking out for their best interest, especially in these times. I mean, when utility rates are going crazy in West Virginia, I think I really regret that we are where we are right now because we don't have any good choices here because of the state of our infrastructure, but we're gonna work through it and we're gonna do our best to look out for those folks. Um, uh, Greenmont neighborhood association has a subcommittee that's been working on, uh, a, uh, a business overlay. Uh, and we started that work a couple of years ago and then there were some transitions in the neighborhood association and some transitions within development services and that, but we, we've got it, we've got it going again. And we had a great first meeting, uh, this week and, um, and I'm really optimistic about what we're going to turn out. It's, it's, it's really important to me because, you know, Greenmont has, is one of our neighborhoods with the, has the highest concentration of, of neighborhood businesses. And it's one of the reasons I love it so much. But you know, I think that, that, that, Those neighborhood businesses that you know may are useful to the neighborhood Make make for stronger neighborhoods Work City manager Miller and I worked with the police department MPD Morgantown Police Department and chief pow to to talk about data and reporting to satisfy a request that's been coming from the Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board for quite some time. I think we're well on our way towards maybe not satisfying all of their requests and all those asks, but I think we're gonna get a long way towards it. And I just wanna highlight that, I mean, I think this will have been a real success for the subcommittee and the work that we've been doing and it's really just foundational to communication. Communication's the foundation of it. When we sit down with each other and talk, we can solve a lot of problems. Last thing is I volunteered with Mayor Trumbull this weekend at an event that was hosted by Sleep in Heavenly Peace. It's an organization that builds beds for kids in need. The event was put on, it was a memorial bed build. in honor of a dear friend and former Greenmont Neighborhood Association chair, co-chair, Chris Boland. And he was just a selfless, wonderful person that loved his community and loved giving back. So it was quite an honor to participate in that. Thanks.

Regarding some of the things we heard from the meeting tonight, I have two similar requests from some of our reports tonight, which is I'd like to know what progress we've made from MUB's previous long-term control plan. I think Mark had sort of mentioned that and what held us back in those respects. Funding was obviously a challenge, but what other factors were holding us back?

It appears to be a very similar plan that we're bringing forward now.

And the same thing with CDBG. I'd like to see our past performance on those. To go back to the MUB thing, I do question the hiring of consultants for a new plan that is the same as our old plan that is 24 years old. In terms of CDBG, I would like to see Yeah, what our past performance is on that. And I know we had some timeliness issues with it previously. Let me see what led to that and just have a fuller picture on how the performance of that goes. Lastly, I just want to thank city manager for taking care of an issue I think a bunch of us were involved in in terms of getting a fencing issue resolved. um but i think that's you may want to hold off on that i'm still working on it today that's again something that we need to try to avoid these situations coming up in the first place would you like to give a report sure i apologize for being late i was at the uh high school senior awards night

Um, saw, I guess now retired fire chief, Chuck. So last name when it was made, I just call him Chuck Campbell, captain Campbell, not chief. I apologize. I'm sorry. It's been a long night. Um, cause they would give out so much, so many awards, uh, That being one of them, the scholarship money as well as I believe our police department had a scholarship award. The YCF gave out several thousand dollars worth of awards in the same vein of school. I don't know if I said it last time, but I did want to thank Shannon for coming and talking to my students in my marketing class about the project events. It helped the kids with their presentations in terms of better understanding better understanding the information they need to be able to host an event and being able to apply it and see what that looks like in real time. I know I missed a lot of dialogue that went on. I'll watch the replay to make sure to catch up. So I won't make any comments. I also did want to take a second to congratulate everybody that won their primary and also thank those that didn't win for even taking the time to run because that requires a certain level of vulnerability to be able to put yourself out there to the community and I genuinely appreciate that. Graduation traffic to be aware of, graduation is next Friday at Morgantown High School, or not next Friday, this Friday at 7 p.m. So that area will be a bit of a mess. And June 13th, so we are almost two weeks out from our first Ward Yard Sale. There is a Google form online for people to fill out to have their houses and homes. listed on our Google map, and the Google map will be put around the neighborhood so people can figure out where to find their next treasure. And we will also have an information table set up for our neighborhood association for anybody wishing to become more, become a bigger part of our community, as well as helping with things like our cemetery revitalizing with our mosaic. award that the neighbors got and that concludes my report.

Thank you.

Just to follow up on the mosaic and maybe it's a question in lieu of a report, will we be sending out guidance to the neighborhood associations who were awarded?

Yes, there will be a scheduled orientation process to kind of run through with each project and follow up documentation similar to letters that we issue for our community partners through the budget process. We will have those letters go out as well and make sure that they're prepared and informed of any checkpoints and any type of closeout process as well. We will make sure that we are sitting down and walking through that.

Okay, great. I know First Ward has already kind of started some of their in-kind donations and Fifth Ward was asking me about the process. um a couple of items maybe i should have mentioned under correspondence but correspondence was a little heavy i received as well as a couple of other people within the city but i didn't see very many council people on here um The Gene Vance Jr. Foundation co-founder, Jamie Vance Mink, sent a letter just expressing gratitude for us and others who have recognized Gene Vance Jr. Day. So wanted to bring that to council's attention. I can forward it along if you would like to. Read it, it just came through yesterday. Yesterday at 10.09, I'll forward it. I was also called and mailed a letter by the mayor of Ripley. Turns out lots of communities love parades. She is trying to organize a Heart of West Virginia parade on West Virginia Day, Saturday, June 20th. She is working to get a representative from each county to participate and she has invited us if we would like to participate. So I can also scan that and send. I'm going to try tentatively, we'll see. The only other thing I want to mention is the Woodburn Association of Neighbors is having a neighbor mixer, just kind of a drop in meet and greet, happy hour kind of thing on Monday, June 1st at 6 p.m. at Mario's on the patio. The Neighborhood Association will be providing some appetizers. just kind of come out and meet the neighborhood. And you all are invited if you wish to attend. That's all I have. Is there someone willing to move us into executive session?

Pursuant to West Virginia State Code Section 6-984 to discuss potential or pending litigation, as well as to discuss matters for boards and commissions,

Thank you. We'll take a brief recess.