Masontown council discusses water main breaks
MASONTOWN – The recent spell of snow and cold weather has kept road crews busy making streets passable, and water plant crews have been busier than usual throughout the borough dealing with one water main break after another. The borough council discussed the issue during their meeting Tuesday, as Mark Snyder, chairman of the borough’s streets committee, updated council on the work of road crews. He said water main breaks were reported on Westwood Avenue and another location on Westwood reported low water pressure.
“These are problems we tend to have more of when it is cold,” he said.
Another problem, according to Mayor Walter Scarton, is that some residents have decided not to clear their sidewalks after a snowfall. He pointed to several locations along Main Street where the property owner has not cleared the snow from the sidewalk, and wondered what could be done to make people comply.
“They can’t keep doing what they are doing or someone is going to get hurt and we are going to end up with a lawsuit,” Scarton said.
According to borough ordinance, residents have 24 hours after a snowfall to remove the snow from their sidewalks or police could cite them.
Snyder encouraged the police to enforce the ordinance as much as possible.
In other business, borough engineer Russ Mechling of Fayette Engineering reviewed his annual report on the borough’s public utility system for 2002.
The utility system is made up of two wastewater treatment plants, one sewage pumping station, force mains and a system of collecting and intercepting sewers.
According to the report, the system serves both the borough and some adjoining portions of German Township.
Mechling said the Masontown Municipal Authority received $9,581 more income than budgeted in 2002 and spent $32,120 less than budgeted last year. He said the authority began 2003 with a $57,401 surplus, which will be transferred to the Public Utility Assistance Fund to help pay for new sewer lines in the borough, a project he said will be in the borough’s future “probably forever.”
In November 2000, the borough was awarded a $2.7 million PENNVEST grant and a $907,604 loan payable over 240 months at a 1 percent interest rate. Five contracts were awarded to cover the project, which was required by the state Department of Environmental Protection because the sewage treatment plant exceeded permitted discharge limits several times between January 1993 and August 1998.
Of the five contracts awarded for the project, Mechling said four of the five projects are more than half completed, and construction of storm flow retention tanks has been finished.
According to the report, the budget for the public utility system is $423,500, with a projected surplus of $3,200.
“Everything seems to be running very well,” Mechling said. “We have similar insurance to other authorities in the area, so things seem to be well.”
Before adjourning, council members voted to sell a 1994 Chevrolet Caprice to Shaffer’s Service of Masontown for $1200.99, the highest bid of the four received.