Liberty supers commit to sewer/water project / By Martha Knight

LIBERTY VILLA—Liberty Township supervisors met briefly Thursday morning, March 6,  in a special meeting to adopt a resolution accepting a $1,538,150 Pennsylvania First grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) to be used for a sewer and water line extension project.

Chairman Gary Turner and fellow commissioners Bruce Klein and Fred Ernst III approved that measure, in effect authorizing themselves to carry out the local responsibilities for the project, and another agreeing to the ongoing services of E&M Engineers and Surveyors of Bradford to update and finalize project design, and perform other services necessary for the project.

Both decisions were unanimous by the supervisors.

As described by E&M, “The project will be the extension of water and sanitary sewer facilities from the existing Port Allegany Borough facilities located at the south end of the Borough. The total length of the water line and the sewer line extensions will be approximately 11,000 linear feet and will service the industrial complex west of State Route 155 and the businesses and residences east (of 155) for a distance of approximately 7,000 feet south of the intersection of…Route 6  and State Route 155 (including Wilson and Roosevelt Avenue).

“The sanitary sewer line will be constructed with a combination of conventional gravity sewer pipe and pressure line sewer system. The extensions will need to cross under the Allegheny River (and presumed adjacent wetlands), State Route 155 and the railroad tracks.”

E&M will prepare the contract bid packages, which will include the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permits, a permit from PennDOT for highway occupancy and approval from the railroad.

There will also be an archeology study and a wetland delineation, performed by outside experts, and coordinated with E&M work. The engineers and surveyors from the firm will also prepare easements. The township government will be responsible for obtaining the signatures of landowners.

The bidding process will be overseen by E&M, as will ongoing project supervision and inspections.

E&M has a head start on the work in that considerable design preliminaries were accomplished last year when the township applied for a similar grant through a different funding program.

Also, that application and the later one and the project itself will benefit from topography studies done earlier for RecycAll, which is part of Portage Industrial Park, a major locus for the infrastructure project and the present and future industries meant to be major users of the services.

Fees for early phases of the work will come to around $114,000, According to E&M. Inspection services during construction will be additional.

Christine Davis Consultants will be paid $5,100 for the Phase I archeological study, and wetlands delineation by Northwest Soil Services is estimated at $3,000.

The township will borrow its share of project costs, which will be the amount not covered by the township’s share of the grant. Of the $5,538,150 total, Port Allegany Borough expects to receive about $500,000 for sewer upgrades within the borough. The borough also will have to come up with about a quarter of its project costs.

Township borrowings for the project are expected to be paid off over the term of the loan through user rates. A similar approach has been applied by the borough in a series of sewer line upgrade projects.

Structures needing sanitation and located within 150 feet of the new sewer lines in the township will be required to hook on. Residential households in the low and moderate income range will receive assistance with hook-on costs, through another grant program. Owners with current good water supplies will have the option of connecting to the new municipal water lines.

Turner said he has been told, earlier, that Act 13 Marcellus Shale Impact Fee funds could help the township meet its “local effort” requirements toward the project cost. This would reduce the amount the municipality needs to borrow, Turner reasons, and also help pay off the loan. Supervisors have said they do not foresee local tax revenues being used for the project.

The project will also help the township toward compliance with its Act 557 plan adopted a few years ago, charting its future toward better sanitation throughout the rural municipality, Turner said. In time other areas will have to be furnished with sewer lines, too.

“It is coming,” Turner said. “We won’t have any choice. But with this grant, we can accomplish this much, without having to bear the whole cost locally.”