Mar 29, 2006 By Steve Ferris 3 min read

The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority tentatively approved a contract Tuesday with an engineering firm to design a Morgantown Street streetscape and storm sewer project. Authority board members approved a contract with Chester Engineers of Moon Township to design the project at a cost not to exceed $60,000, but awarding the contract is contingent upon confirmation that grant funding will cover certain aspects of the project.

The City of Uniontown was awarded a $999,350 “Hometown Streets” grant from the state for the project and $300,000 in Community Development Block Grant money has been set aside for the project.

Authority Director Mark Yauger said the Hometown Streets grant will pay for new sidewalks, streetlights, planters and benches, but he is not certain whether moving electrical and phone lines underground and shoring up vaults that exist under the sidewalks qualify for the grant funding.

Yauger said he asked the Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the grant program, to tell the authority if the grant covers underground utilities and vault repairs.

He said he would not give Chester a notice to proceed until he hears from PennDOT.

“No use designing a job you’re not able to fund,” Yauger said.

The $300,000 in CDBG money will pay for the storm sewer improvement part of the project.

If the work is approved, the project will take the rest of the year to design and construction would start in February or March 2007, Yauger said.

In unrelated business, the board awarded a $43,680 contract to a local contractor for a storm water sewer improvement project on Millview Street.

Yauger said the project is part of the city’s overall sewer separation project in which combined sewer lines are being replaced with separate sanitary and storm lines.

Soon after the meeting began, board Chairman John Oris called for a closed-door executive session to discuss personnel matters.

He asked City Councilman Joseph Giachetti to leave the meeting room. Mayor James Sileo stayed for the executive session.

“Bad call,” Giachetti angrily said when he left. He did not return when the executive session ended and the regular meeting was called back to order.

Sileo attends most of the authority’s meetings and Giachetti, who began his second term on council this year, does not. Tuesday might have been the first one he attended.

When contacted after the meeting, Oris said Sileo regularly attends authority meetings while Giachetti doesn’t.

In other action, the board approved paying the annual $211 membership dues to the Fayette Chamber of Commerce.