Wetzel County updates Porters Falls campus: design work, pipeline relocations and $17.2M encumbered

At the Wetzel County Board of Education meeting, finance staff provided a detailed account of invoices, encumbrances and remaining carryover funds tied to the Porters Falls new-school project.

Finance presenter (S15) listed Thrasher engineering invoices (e.g., $165,225 on April 23 and a later $55,075 on May 27), demolition and asbestos testing costs ($23,600 plus change order amounts), and a $2,500,000 payment for professional services related to Williams pipeline relocation. He reported total spent as of 07/24/2026 of $7,000,454.927 (rounded in discussion) and total project spent and encumbered of $17,230,221.01. "The total carryover funds remaining towards this project is $21,769,778.99," the presenter said.

The superintendent's update (presenter S4) noted the site-development and land-improvement phase is active and that environmental studies and pipeline relocation are on the critical path: "Before major construction can begin, we have to work through, several behind the scenes things like environmental studies, permitting, and because of some pipelines, pipeline relocation, with Williams and TC Energy," he said. S15 told the board Williams required an upfront payment to begin relocation work: "They refused. It was a deal breaker. They refused... if we didn't pay upfront." Board members asked for public-facing project timelines and financial tracking to be posted on the district website; S15 said a project page is planned once IT capacity allows.

The board did not approve new borrowing at this meeting; members discussed transparency and asked for continued cost monitoring and publicly available documentation.