West Brownsville council hears project update
WEST BROWNSVILLE – The borough council heard reports about the status of the Center West Joint Sewer Authority’s upcoming project on Tuesday from Councilman Scott Campbell and President Dan Kendall, both members of the authority. According to Campbell, authority members met with Rural Utility Service (RUS) and a representative of the Washington County Redevelopment Authority on June 15 to examine ways of cutting costs and raising additional funds for building a new sewer system, since the cost came in at $4 million over the authority’s budget.
Campbell said the authority will also meet with Washington County Commissioner Bracken Burns on Monday in an effort to gain some assistance from the commissioners in getting funding.
Campbell reported that since state legislators are finished with responsibilities concerning the state’s budget, the authority will work with them to “do everything they can to get the project under way.”
“We want to get under construction, get connected and get going,” said Campbell.
Kendall said that at the authority’s last meeting, engineers were given authorization to try to get RUS funding for the redesign of the project. Kendall explained that a possibility for saving money on the new system is for the authority to have the plans redesigned to relocate the pump station and take the sewage to Brownsville to be treated at that plant.
“This will save us four or five million dollars on the project and we have to get RUS moving,” said Kendall. “They have held us up on redesign for about three months. They are a federally funded agency and I don’t know why they are dragging their feet.”
Kendall said that authority solicitors are currently working on an inter-municipal agreement with Brownsville.
In another matter, some local residents urged the council to consider joining the Southwest Regional Police force so that there would always be an officer on call.
Mayor Martin Brockman pointed out that residents can always get assistance from the state police by calling 911.
He said that the police department in West Brownsville has someone on duty eight hours a day, and with a regional police force, he had been informed that “you get what you pay for.”
“We have $35,000 to work with,” said Brockman. “For that, I’ve been told we would only have someone here for about an hour a day.” Kendall said that in an emergency, the state police do respond in a reasonable amount of time.
“I personally was robbed on a Saturday, and the state police were there in about 20 minutes,” said Kendall.
Brockman said that if anyone needs the police in West Brownsville for a non-emergency, and no one is on duty, they can leave a message at the department and the call will be returned when someone reports for duty. The number for the police department is 724-785-8434. Callers will be prompted to dial the number one to reach the police department.
Councilman Todd King also reported that the council had received two applications for part-time police officers, as last month, Brockman said the borough was in need of new part time officers.
King said they also have one applicant interested in becoming a part-time street worker for the rest of the summer. The council met in executive session following the meeting to discuss these personnel matters.
Brockman also announced that if anyone in the borough needs assistance with animals for any reason, they should call the Steve Courson Humane Society directly at 724-439-8620.