close

Fairchance seeks grant money to replace water lines

By Steve Ferris sferris@heraldstandard.Com 2 min read

FAIRCHANCE — Borough council voted on Thursday to apply for a $30,000 grant to cover the engineering costs to plan the replacement of all water lines in the borough.

The estimated cost of replacing all the lines, including the lines to homes, is $11 million, said Marcia Goisse, council vice president.

Borough officials said they are meeting with the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) and the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Oct 29. to discuss the project and applying for a grant or loan to cover the cost.

They said they also plan to contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development about a grant or loan for the project and are in talks with the Fayette County Redevelopment Authority about obtaining Community Development Block Grant money for the project.

The action comes after the borough had to shut down it’s water distribution system because of numerous water line breaks earlier this month.

A boil water advisory was in place at the time, but has been lifted.

Council voted to hire borough consultant J. Scott Bush to designed the line replacement project and to ask Bush to ask the borough engineering firm, K2 Engineering of Uniontown, to work with him.

Councilman Neal Christopher voted against hiring Bush, saying K2 should do the work because it is the borough’s engineering firm.

The $30,000 grant application will be submitted to Rural Development.

Council instructed Marian Chambers, the borough’s grant writer, to submit the application after Bush signs it.

Chambers will also assist with the project grant application.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today