CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield County Commissioners will help the Beccaria Township Supervisors explore avenues by which to obtain funding for a feasibility study for extending its sewage line from Tomorrow’s Hope to Utahville with services from the Beccaria-Coalport-Irvona Municipal Authority.
The commissioners and Clearfield County Planning and Community Development Specialist Lisa Kovalick will meet with members of the Beccaria Township Board of Supervisors at 11 a.m. Jan. 29. The supervisors said they would invite representatives from the BCIMA to attend the meeting.
At Tuesday’s commissioners’ meeting, Supervisor Randy Blake said Beccaria Township wanted to extend its sewage line into the community of Utahville. He said the township needed to conduct a feasibility study, which would cost $28,000.
“We’re trying to do as much as we can, but we’re also trying to build two buildings – the township building and the township garage. And, that takes a lot of time and a lot of money,” said Blake.
Then, he asked if the county might consider helping them with funding for the study, which might encourage the BCIMA to be “a little more generous, too.” He said for the township and the BCIMA to each pay half the costs of the study was “plain and simple just a lot of money” for both entities.
Blake said if they extended the sewage line, there would be at least 60 hook-ups. He said a lot of people have shown interest in the sewage line extension project.
When asked by Commissioner John A. Sobel, Blake said the township hadn’t contacted any lending institutions. When asked by Commissioner Chairperson Joan Robinson-McMillen, Blake said the township had received Marcellus Shale impact fee funding; however, they already had plans for using it. Kovalick said that the county doesn’t use CDBG funding for the planning aspects of projects.
When asked by Kovalick, Blake said that Stiffler McGraw & Associates would be conducting the feasibility study for the sewage line extension project. Sobel suggested the commissioners meet with the supervisors and Kovalick to obtain additional information regarding the sewage line extension project.
Kovalick then asked Blake if the BCIMA was calling it their study or that of Beccaria Township. He said BCIMA has called it the township’s study at which point County Solicitor Kim Kesner said that ownership “gets to be a little fuzzy.”
Kesner said that a municipal authority is created to implement the 537 plan for a municipality. He said it’s ultimately the municipality’s responsibility to plan and provide for sewage. He said that Beccaria Township created the BCIMA, which has been successful for that area, despite its limited resources there.
Commissioner Mark B. McCracken asked Blake about BCIMA’s position on the sewage line extension project. Blake said Muddy Run had previously expressed interest in extending their line to Utahville. However, he said BCIMA wanted to extend its line from Tomorrow’s Hope.
“That’s why we’re here. It’s more feasible for BCIMA, and it will be more feasible for BCIMA,” said Blake. “You have 8,000 feet of line there with no one hooked to it but Tomorrow’s Hope.”
When asked by McCracken, Blake estimated the sewage line extension would run one-mile. He said they would probably pick up additional hook-ups, as the sewage extension project progresses.
