HUNTINGTON -- Huntington will have to raise its sewer rates before it can afford to pay for a new sewer line that would allow more development at KineticPark.

Ever since earthwork for the business and technology park along W.Va. 10 was completed in 2002, city officials have known the sewer line that serves the park would eventually have to be replaced with a larger line. The same line also serves Huntington High School, parts of Enslow Park and an upscale rental community called Townhomes of Park Pointe Way.

Huntington City Council even postponed or rejected several sewer rate increases in 2003 and 2004 that included funding for the upgrade.

If the project is not done soon, the city will lose a prospective tenant that would occupy a significant amount of space on the upper level of KineticPark, Huntington City Councilman Cal Kent says.

"Until the sewer line issue is resolved, nothing else can go into KineticPark other than the hotel that's getting ready to be built," he said. "It's terribly frustrating that years after the park was built, we still find ourselves in this position."

The lack of an adequate sewer line also stunts development along other areas of W.Va. 10, not just KineticPark, said Bill Toney, executive director of the Huntington Municipal Development Authority.

But an upgrade to the sewer line is at least two years away from completion, Huntington Sanitary Board member Jim Ashworth said. The Sanitary Board won't have a rate increase proposal ready until sometime this winter, he said. It then could take up to a year to get approval from the Sanitary Board, City Council and West Virginia Public Service Commission and another year for construction.

The Sanitary Board and Huntington Municipal Development Authority, which owns KineticPark, also appear to be far apart on several issues pertaining to the project.

"The HMDA should be on top of this sewer line project, but they're really not," Ashworth said. "They've been asleep and now it's suddenly an urgency.

"I hate to say that, but I think it's the truth. I don't think this city thinks comprehensively. It moves from one crisis to another. I don't want this to become a crisis, but I'm afraid it already has."

One issue that the HMDA and Sanitary Board are at odds over is the HMDA's financial contribution toward the project. Upgrading the sewer line will cost between $3 million and $3.5 million, Ashworth said. The HMDA has agreed to help pay for the project with tax-increment financing proceeds from KineticPark, but has not told the Sanitary Board how much it can contribute, Ashworth said.

Toney said the HMDA could contribute up to $350,000 in TIF proceeds, but Ashworth said that estimate has never been relayed to the Sanitary Board.

"It's a little difficult to prepare a rate case when we don't know how much TIF money we are going to get from the HMDA," Ashworth said.

There also are differing opinions on how the rate increase for the W.Va. 10 sewer line should be structured.

Ashworth said the project should be bundled with a rate increase proposal to begin the initial phase of separating the city's combined sanitary and storm water lines. The Sanitary Board asked City Council in June to approve a 76 percent rate increase over a two-year period for the initial phase of that separation project, but later withdrew the request.

"There's too many hoops to jump through from an administrative standpoint to try to raise rates for an individual project then seek another rate increase for our long-term control project," Ashworth said.

But Kent and Mayor David Felinton, who is chairman of the Sanitary Board, said the W.Va. 10 sewer line is important enough to warrant its own rate increase proposal. Bundling the rate increases together could hold up the W.Va. 10 sewer line project even longer, Felinton said, because the long-term sewer separation project will have to be reviewed by state and federal environmental regulatory agencies.

"I also think the other Sanitary Board members have tried to use KineticPark as a pawn to justify a sewer rate increase for the long-term control project," said Felinton, who voted against the rate increase for the separation project this summer.

The HMDA and Sanitary Board also disagree on who should be held responsible if the ground at KineticPark slips during the construction of a new sewer line.

The current engineering design has the new sewer line running underneath the road at KineticPark. Ashworth said the Sanitary Board has reached an agreement with its engineers to modify the design so that the new sewer line runs along Fourpole Creek. That's where the existing sewer line runs, he said.

Ashworth said the design should be changed because the hillside above the road at KineticPark has slipped before.

"KineticPark is HMDA's baby, not ours," he said. "We didn't decide to build an industrial park on a hill like that. There's no sense in the Sanitary Board sticking our head in the sand and saying whatever happens we'll take responsibility for."

Toney said the Sanitary Board should bear some responsibility if the ground slips because it wants to alter the construction design.

"Someone is not wanting to put the new line where the engineers say it should go," Toney said. "If the engineers say it should go under the road, then that's where I think it should go."

The city has spent about $18 million on the KineticPark project.

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