In a press release on Friday, December 14, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said the funds “will bring valuable, much-needed infrastructure upgrades to this growing community… when completed, this project will impact over 4,000 residents and 1,142 households in Morgan County.”
Berkeley Springs Water Works (BSWW), the town-owned water department, has committed $500,000 to support and engineer the project. Town of Bath Mayor Scott Merki said that will round out the $2 million estimated project cost.
“The water line project is shovel ready,” Merki said on Monday.
The Community Development Block Grant – Small Cities application was handled by Bill Clark, executive director of the Eastern Panhandle Regional Planning and Development Council (Region 9). The town applied for the grant in 2016 and 2017.
“It feels good that after three tries we are successful,” Clark said in an email.
The water line replacement areas are Cornelius Avenue, Merrywoods Drive, Johnson Mill Road and Berryville.
“I’m thrilled that the Town of Bath’s water department can replace these lines to correct the water loss. These old lines have been patched again and again and needed to be replaced,” Merki said.
Merki said he is hoping to start the replacement project in the spring.
