Jan 5, 2005 By Angie Santello 3 min read

MASONTOWN – The borough’s newly reappointed engineer Russ Mechling said the sanitary sewage project meant to service half of the Masontown community is nearly complete and he sought approval for the company’s payment from the council at Monday night’s meeting. Mechling said the project will prevent sewage from backing up in residents’ basements, an issue repeatedly brought to the attention of council members by River Avenue resident Betty Moser in particular.

“With that (project), you won’t have sewage backing up at River Avenue,” Mechling said. “(The line there) didn’t have the capacity. It would start backing up at the 21-inch line. …It will resolve a lot of the problems.”

The various pipe sizes, which went from 21 inches to 15 inches to 12 inches then to 18 inches, was the main source of the problem along the avenues, he said.

He added that the former lines were old and inadequate and noted that the project definitely was needed.

Garletts Excavating from Dunbar was hired to perform the work.

The council entered into a contract to install near 700 feet of 18-inch sewer line on River and Cottage Avenues at the cost of $25,760 in September.

At Monday’s meeting, the council approved to pay the company $16,105 for the work, but voted 4-3 against paying an extra $12,000 for work that, according to Mechling, required Garletts employees to jackhammer through rock near 8 feet deep. The price of the extra work drove the total project cost up to $38,000, Mechling said.

It was specified in the contract that money had been set aside for breaking through rock at the site.

Garletts began nearly six weeks worth of work at the site on Nov. 9. Mechling noted restoration work is still left to complete.

Flooding has plagued the River and Cottage avenues as well as other parts of the borough for at least a couple of years, leading to residents, who were fearful of their possessions being damaged by high flood waters, to voice their complaints at several borough council meetings in 2004.

Moser of 217 River Ave. told council members at a meeting in May that her basement, yard and driveway flooded three times over the past 10 months.

At that time, council members said that the installation of this 18-inch sewer line must be complete before flooding concerns can be alleviated.

Mechling said the source of Moser’s concern was fixed about two or three years ago.

Project bids for the River and Cottage avenues sanitary sewer project were rejected at least twice before the council received a price for the work that they thought was reasonable.

On Monday, plans to purchase additional pipe at the cost of $2,500 to $3,000 to install a 36-inch storm sewer on the avenues was also discussed by the council.

In other business, Councilman Tom Loukota announced that the Fayette County Housing Authority relented after numerous requests and agreed to pay the borough an additional amount toward reimbursing the borough for the money spent at the authority-owned Fort Mason Village.

Loukota said authority officials have offered a ballpark figure, but nothing definite. He said he wants to see in writing the information on how the authority plans to assist the borough.

“Now, what I would like to see from them is a permanent commitment, not a now and then, so I can adjust our payment and personnel accordingly,” he said.

At the authority’s Dec. 20 meeting, no official decisions were made by the five-member board of directors, although the proposal to spend no more than 10 percent or $300,000 of the public housing program reserve on eight county police departments in need of assistance was recommended by the authority’s executive director, Thomas Harkless.