Morgantown Street project put on hold again
Due to a lack of money Uniontown’s Morgantown Street improvement project has been delayed again, this time until 2004. “It will be done, but I’m not going to (financially) break the city, and I don’t want to raise taxes,” Mayor Jim Sileo said.
The project, which is similar to the Main Street and South Street projects, involves moving utility wires underground, upgrading the street and sidewalks and replacing sanitary and storm sewers.
The project has been in the planning stages since 1997 and was originally scheduled to start in spring 2002.
A lack of available funds pushed the start date to this spring, but the city still does not have all the money needed to complete the work and does not want to borrow money to begin it this year.
William Long, executive director of the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority, said the project will cost $800,000 to $1 million, but only $330,000 in Community Development Block Grants has been earmarked for the work. He said the CDBG money has been in place since 1999, and the project design was completed last year.
He said he asked council and the mayor to consider borrowing the balance of the needed money, but they did not support the idea.
Sileo said he didn’t support Long’s proposal because the city will be “strapped” for money this year for several reasons. He said the city accepted a loan last year from Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) for separating storm and sanitary sewer lines in the city.
The city took out a 1-percent-interest, 30-year, $5.7 million loan for separating the sewer lines and is responsible for its share of a $14 million PENNVEST loan being used to upgrade the Greater Uniontown Sewage Plant, which is also shared by North Union and South Union townships.
Sileo also said council settled contracts with all three employee unions late last year, took out a $550,000 tax anticipation loan and has a $90,000 payroll every two weeks.
Long said he is exploring other state and federal grants and is optimistic that the project, which will take four to five months to complete, will be done in 2004 without any debt to the city.
“It’s my charge to find adequate grant funds,” Long said. “That’s my charge. I’m going to do that. I can’t raise that amount in this calendar year.”
He said city leaders also discussed doing the work in phases, but nobody supported that idea because it would be too disruptive to the downtown area.
Long said he has identified three potential state and federal funding sources, in addition to the CDBG program, that could provide money for the project. The city also could use a Fayette County bond issue to fund the project, he said
Work didn’t start in 2002, because the 2001 South Street project went over budget and used some of the money intended for Morgantown Street, Long said.
The South Street budget was $120,000, but the final cost was about $450,000 because of added work, he said.
Separating sewer lines under Morgantown Street is not part of the PENNVEST-funded projects, but is mandated under the same consent order from the state Department of Environmental Protection that requires the city to separate all its lines and upgrade the treatment plant. The order was handed down two years ago, leaving the city with eight more years to complete the work.