CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield Municipal Authority board last night learned of a letter from State Rep. Tommy Sankey’s office (R-73 of Clearfield) to Board Chairman Russ Triponey concerning funding for a waterline extension project.
The CMA has considered extending waterlines to certain parts of the Glen Richey area, especially since the state Department of Environmental Protection has made clear it would prefer the CMA take on the project as opposed to other water authorities. However, doing the extension has been cost prohibitive.
The letter from Sankey’s office stated that the DEP has a grant available, which would pay for materials. Engineer Jim Balliet of Gwin, Dobson and Foreman Inc. of Altoona stated that even with this grant, the cost of the project would still be too high.
He said he would break out the costs of two of the areas, and they could then go back to the DEP and see if there are additional grant funds available to help with the project cost. Area one is along Carbon Mine Road and has 29 residences, and area two is along the Glen Richey Highway to Pine Grove Nursery.
It was noted that the total projected cost of the project for the five areas is $10-12 million, but even if they broke it down to a couple of areas, the cost would be prohibitive without grant funding.
Triponey said the CMA had hoped to get money from a fund paid by the coal companies, but those companies have recently been facing hard times and have not been able to contribute to the fund, which is part of the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation.
In an interview after the meeting, Balliet explained to the media that the project would have to be mostly, if not entirely, funded by grant money; otherwise, the debt service would be far too high for residents.
In other business, the board learned HRI should be able to begin mechanical work at the Montgomery Run water treatment facility in April. Control valves and panels were delivered in February and employees are in the process of installation. When installation is complete, HRI can begin its portion of the project.
Design of the waterline replacement project to the waste water treatment facility began with layout, material, sizes and interconnections finally determined and survey work is scheduled to begin this week. Currently, the CMA is verifying underground utilities, and the project should be finished by the end of this summer.
Work is proceeding with the waste water treatment facility upgrade. Church & Murdock has requested a change order due to the delay when the original contractor defaulted on the project, resulting in Liberty Mutual stepping in as the insurance company and Lobar as the other contractor. Balliet said the CMA needs to talk to Liberty Mutual about the matter before approving the change order.