Aug 11, 2003 By Joyce Koballa 2 min read

BULLSKIN TWP. – The monthly billing for customers of the Bullskin Township/Connellsville Township Joint Sewerage Authority is off to a good start, according to the authority’s executive director. Carl Lewis reported that of the authority’s 576 customers that received their first bill last month for $36.25, there were only 53 delinquencies. Since the project’s completion in April, Lewis said he has conducted 288 tap-in inspections and issued 415 permits, leaving about 127 customers to tap in.

To date, the authority has collected roughly $450,000 in tap-in fees, including those from 35 of the 43 customers affected by the project’s sewerage line extension along Johnson Lane and Connellsville Street in Connellsville Township, Lewis said.

Now that restoration work has been completed to the extension, the authority is looking to apply the savings toward another extension in order to include several additional customers.

Dick Widmer, vice president of Widmer Engineering, said although the savings is minimal, the authority plans to extend the sewerage line until exhausting the remaining funds. “We’ll go as far as we can until the money runs out,” said Widmer.

According to Widmer, the authority has about $50,000 left to spend resulting from $115,000 in change-order savings from two of three contractors hired for the overall project encompassing parts of both municipalities.

The authority broke ground on the $5.52 million project last March upon hiring contractors D&M Contracting of New Alexandria and Shallenberger Construction Inc. of Connellsville to install sewerage collection systems in Bullskin and Connellsville townships along with D.T. Construction Inc. of Dunbar which installed three pump stations, two in Connellsville Township.

All three contractors have since completed the project, with Shallenberger wrapping up the remaining restoration work to the Connellsville Township extension.

Widmer said the authority has collected roughly 80 percent of the $1,200 tap-in fees excluding those from customers involved in the extension. Those were recently mailed. “The tap-in notices have been going out as each section is completed,” said Pat Stefano, authority chairman.

Customers in Poplar Grove in Connellsville and the Merit Manor area, the Route 119 corridor and in Pennsville in Bullskin Township are on the system.

The project was made possible with a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1999 and a $350,000 loan from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) coupled with local money.

The authority received further funding last year when PENNVEST awarded it a $1 million grant to help offset construction costs and a second loan for $1.5 million.