Building of community hinges on sewage extension
CENTERVILLE – A Bucks County developer’s plans to build a community with 100 houses, 25 townhouses, retail stores and offices along Route 40 hinge on whether the borough can extend sewage service to the 76-acre site. The developer, Robert Schleeweiss, president of Building Services of America Inc. of Dublin, brought a sketch of the community to Wednesday’s joint meeting of borough council and West Pike Run Township officials, and said he won’t buy the property unless sewage service is guaranteed.
He said he wants to start construction between July and September and complete the $10-to-$15-million project by fall 2004, but work can not begin until a sewage line is in place.
“Unless (a sewage line) is started, we can’t start,” Schleeweiss said.
He predicted that the opening of the Mon/Fayette Expressway will make the Centerville area an attractive bedroom community for people who work in Pittsburgh.
“With the expressway, this area is going to grow,” Schleeweiss said. “It’s going to grow with you or without you. This area is just ripe for growing.”
West Pike Run officials were invited to the meeting because council wants the township to be the sewage service provider for the development.
Supervisor Stephen Hajdu said the township sewage authority’s treatment plant in Daisytown has enough capacity available to accommodate the development.
Township engineer Harry Hall estimated that it would cost $500,000 to install 8,000 feet of sewer line from the plant to the proposed building site.
Council President Ed Sukal said the Centerville Sanitary Authority, which primarily serves the Richeyville area, would need a major plant expansion to handle the proposed development and the Center-West Joint Municipal Authority is waiting for approval of its application for funding and does not yet have a treatment plant.
Council members said they would hound state and federal legislators for grant money to pay for a line extension from the Daisytown plant.
“The ball is in our court,” Councilman Patsy Ricciuti said.
Councilwoman Susie Zebley said there is not enough time to try to obtain funding through government agencies’ lengthy application process.
A resident suggested that council ask the Mon Valley Progress Council and the Washington County commissioners to help pressure state and federal legislators for grant money.
If sewage service can be provided, Schleeweiss promised a development with a historical theme based on the property on which it would be built and the National Road.
The 75.9-acre site, which is across Route 40 from Centerville’s borough building, is the location of the Wheeler-Knight house that was built in two parts in 1800 and 1870. Hugo Iacaponi is the current owner.
Schleeweiss said he would restore the house and use it as a center for historical information about the National Road and the Underground Railroad.
The commercial and retail building would have a colonial design to match the house.
The townhouses would provide buffer between the business area and the single-family houses, he said.