|Photo by Emma Delk| Moundsville City Manager RIck Healy gave an update on the progress towards competing the takeover agreement for the new city building project.

Moundsville City Council tabled the consideration and vote on the takeover agreement for the new Moundsville City building project on Tuesday.

No progress has been made on the project since the former general contractor for the job &build filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The takeover agreement is an arrangement between the City of Moundsville, the surety company and the new general contractor. Once city council approves the takeover agreement, the general contractor will be publicized and begin work on the site.

City Manager Rick Healy said during Tuesday’s meeting that he and Moundsville City Attorney Thomas White were “working diligently” on completing the takeover agreement. Healy said they were “very, very close” to completing it and hoped to have it considered and voted on at the next regular city council meeting on Sept. 3.

Vice-mayor David Wood questioned Healy about what he meant by saying they were “getting closer” to a takeover agreement. Healy responded there are “a lot of different items” in the takeover agreement, including a bankruptcy section, that have required city attorneys and the surety company attorneys to “redline the agreement and send it back to each other.”

“I think we’re down pretty close to having the agreement where everybody is happy,” Healy noted. “There’s been some give and take, but there is nothing that will prevent us from finishing the building.”

Healy added the surety company “really is in control” due to the way the contract with them was arranged, which requires city officials to “fight back” against the surety company to “get some movement.”

“Tom (White has) been staying up-to-date on all the emails, especially the bankruptcy ones, as those are a little more difficult to understand,” Healy said. “He’ll convey messages back to me and the construction attorneys, and we also get together and talk about things. It’s been a real flurry of activity over the last week, so I hope we can have that agreement on our agenda by our first September meeting and go into executive session to discuss it.”

Healy added the general contractor “won’t be named” until the takeover agreement is signed.

In other motions, the council unanimously approved White to draft an ordinance for Phase 1 of abandoning paper alleys in the city. According to Healy, paper alleys are city alleys that are no longer in use and have been “on the city books for years and years.”

“They may be alleys or roads that have been closed over the years or abandoned, but the city still owns them,” Healy said. “We need to get rid of many of them, so we have started a phased program to accomplish that.”

The council approved drafting the program’s first phase, which will abandon five paper alleys in the city. After they are abandoned, the adjoining property owners will receive the property, with each owner on either side receiving half of it.

The first reading of the draft for Phase 1 of the program will occur during the next city council meeting. Healy added more phases will be completed in the project to eliminate more paper alleys as the council goes forward.

The council also unanimously approved making Kentucky Avenue a one-way street northbound. Healy said the street was “narrow,” and the one-way designation was a response to complaints of people “driving up in yards” while bypassing and “speeding southbound to get to Fourth Street.”

Wood asked Healy how residents would be notified of the change. Healy responded the road would not change “immediately” and would publicize the date. He said the change would occur “maybe on September 7 or another day around that time.”

“I don’t think going out and changing it today or tomorrow morning is a good idea,” Healy said. “We’ll make some sort of an advanced date and do our best to notify everybody.”