Aug 29, 2003 By April Straughters 4 min read

CENTERVILLE – Borough council took heed to local residents’ request and after much discussion decided to rescind a motion made earlier in the month to dissolve the borough’s sanitary authority. About 40 residents attended a joint meeting Wednesday to speak out against council’s decision to dissolve the sanitary authority that they said council once “shoved down our throat,” when they didn’t want a sewerage system.

“This sewage authority was forced on the people in Richeyville. We didn’t need it. People had septic systems working perfectly fine. …Let the authority do their job,” said Marge Gargus, of Richeyville.

Residents defended the sewerage authority saying that they are always available to customers, quick to respond to problems and work to keep the fees low.

During the meeting, both council and the authority were given a chance to address their concerns and any resident who wished to speak was given the floor.

At times the meeting got a little heated, with residents yelling comments, but President Ed Sukall was very careful to keep an orderly meeting and only allowed one person to speak at a time.

Each of the three groups though, had their opinions heard.

Council’s position was that they were upset that the authority hasn’t adopted a budget, hasn’t settled a contract with its employees and hasn’t made any attempts at expanding the sewerage authority to prepare for expected growth and development in the borough.

“I want to know how many grants they (the authority) have applied for in the last 10 years?” said Councilwoman Mariann Bailey. “Where are they going? …When are you going to expand? There are grants out there. There are people getting money hand over fist.”

Council, after a discussion in executive decision in late July, unanimously voted to dissolve the authority. Then approximately two weeks later, Councilwoman Susie Zebley said she thought council acted hastily and should have discussed the issues with the authority first.

Zebley’s comments led council to hold off on dissolving the authority and meet with its members.

At Wednesday’s meeting Zebley said that she believed council had made a mistake in their decision and she gave a personal apology to the authority’s members.

“I got caught up in the momentum of it all. I think the decision to dissolve authority was wrong,” she said.

Chuck LaMendola, chairman of the sanitary authority, in rebuttal to comments from council said that he has applied for grants for “upgrades.” He said the authority can’t afford to expand for development without an investor already in place with their share of an expansion project.

He said that to upgrade the sewage treatment plant, that already has a maximum flow of 175,000 gallons a day, would cost $1.4 million to double its size.

He said without a developer or investor, the local residents would have to pay for the upgrade, raising their monthly fees to up to $46.

The residents in the crowd scowled at that comment.

“Are you going to tell these people that you are going to up their bill in order to expand?” he said.

LaMendola also said that the contract negotiations are the reason the budget hasn’t been adopted. He said that employee salaries are 50 percent of the budget. He said the authority and the employees union remain at the table because he is trying to save taxpayers money.

Keith Peer, the authority accountant said the authority uses last year’s budget as a guide and the authority’s solicitor Jack Purcell said that it is not illegal for the authority to operate without a budget, because they are not funded by taxpayers’ money.

Chris Niely, a local resident, backed LaMendola’s comments. He said told council that if they want to see development in the area, they need to go out and find investors and people with money who want to invest in the area.

“Everything else is secondary. Just make sure you keep up your land,” Niely said. “This is the kind of thing that turns a town into a ghost town.”

Chip Bogdewic of Bentleyville said that he’s been living in the area for 24 years and hasn’t seen any growth yet.

“I haven’t seen anything but a CVS and a bunch of name changes and that’s it,” he said.

But Councilman Patsy Rucciuti said that he expects a lot of development in the area with the Mon-Fayette Expressway and he said that the borough had better be prepared.

“If you don’t have the infrastructure, people won’t come. They’ll go someplace else,” he said.

No resolutions to the differences were discussed. But both parties agreed that there needs to be better communication between the two groups.

Bailey motioned to rescind the motion to dissolve the authority and Rucciuti seconded it. All council members voted in favor of the motion.