Published: October 12, 2007 11:54 pm         

Mountain Top Public Service District hopes to add customers

Expansion would bring the total number of water service users to 900 or more

MOUNT STORM — The Mountain Top Public Service District is looking to expand its water service in the region to add more than 50 new customers.

The PSD serves the Mount Storm, Bayard, Gormania, Hartmansville, Sulphur City and Elk Garden areas and plans to add water service for new customers along portions of Cherry Ridge Road and Arnold Mine Road as well as all of Bismark Road between state Route 93 and U.S. Route 50. In addition, the project will replace a mile of line on Cemetery (Old Bayard) Road.

The expansion would bring the total number of customers in the district to 900 or more.

“We have to have 80 percent of the residents want the service to do it,” said Bill Dunithan, general manager of the PSD.

The project is being fully funded with a loan of $2,673,500 from the West Virginia Infrastructure Council.

The PSD had sought a grant of $250,000 from Small Cities Block Grant funding but the application was withdrawn by the Grant County Commission when the loan was approved.

County Coordinator Cindy Whetsell said that once the loan was approved, the PSD was no longer eligible for the grant funding. “The rules don’t allow it,” she said.

The loan is interest-free and is to be repaid over a 40-year period, Whetzell added.

PSD Secretary Jennifer Daugherty and Dunithan said the project probably won’t take more than six months once everything is in place.

Daugherty said it is in the engineering stage now with the engineers surveying potential customers and looking at the feasibility of where to lay the lines.

“Right now they say we’ll probably add 54 customers but I think it will be more like 70,” she said.

She said that user rates are estimated to increase less than 10 percent.

Dunithan said that could change when the West Virginia Public Service Commission reviews the project and the rate scale. “It could be higher,” he said.

Daugherty and Dunithan said that rate payers now are billed for a minimum of 3,000 gallons per month.

“The engineers have said rates will be based on a 4,000-gallon-per-month average, which currently costs users $27.48,” said Daugherty. “They said the proposed rate increase would take it to $30.15.”

Dunithan again emphasized that it could be more, depending on what the Public Service Commission says.

He said they hope to begin construction on the project sometime in 2008.

The Mountain Top Public Service District was created in 1970 by the Grant County Commission but the water system was not constructed until 1976 and was expanded in 1980.

In addition to residences, two schools, two medical centers, two power plants, four post offices and one senior center are served.

The water source is a 12-acre, spring-fed reservoir.

On average, the PSD pumps 175,000 gallons of water per day through 50 miles of water mains and seven water tanks, according to information provided by the office staff, including Office Manager Diane Junkins.

Dunithan said the municipalities of Bayard, Mount Storm, Gormania and Elk Garden have sewer systems, while the other areas are served by private septic systems.

For additional information on the Mountain Top Public Service District or the project under review, call the PSD office at (304) 693-7667.

Mona Ridder can be reached at mridder@times-news.com.