CURWENSVILLE – Streets in Curwensville will soon be a lot cleaner.
At Monday’s meeting, the Curwensville Borough Council voted 5-1 to purchase a new street sweeper. Council member Tom Carfley voted against the purchase, while Council members Harriet and Rhonda Carfley, Dave Donahue, Robbie Moore and Sara Curulla voted in favor.
Street Foreman Denny Curry said the borough presently pays another municipality to come once a year and clean the streets and stormwater catch basins.
He said the borough is having problems, because if it rains heavily once the streets are swept, or if residents sweep dirt or gravel out onto the roads, the streets are dirty again.
Harriet Carfley said the borough presently pays $7,000 to have the streets swept. She said by using the borough’s liquid fuels money and money from the borough’s savings, they can use at least $50,000 for a down payment, and this will give the borough one year without a payment.
She said by continuing to use $20,000 from liquid fuels money and using the yearly $7,000, they will be able to pay off the machine in five years.
The street sweeper comes with a full one-year warranty, and many of the parts and equipment will have additional three- to five-year warranties.
Tom Carfley said he was against the purchase because he is concerned about what would happen if another piece of equipment would break down and the borough would need to come up with money to fix the equipment.
Curry said the street department’s budget is in very good shape.
“I’ve done everything I can over the past five years to save the borough money,” Curry said. “This will actually save the borough money in the long run, because in five years, we will own that piece of equipment. That’s money that will go into our pocket instead of someone else’s.”
Curry said he would be able to clean the streets once a month and the only expense the borough will see is the cost of fuel.
Also, at the meeting, the council announced that the all-inclusive swings set has arrived, and the street department will be looking at the site to see what needs to be done to install it.
Curry said it will take a lot of work to help put the swing set together. He said the Masons and the Shriners have offered to help.
Carfley announced that any borough residents who are doing work, which requires a land-use permit, and who do not get the permits can be fined up to $300, plus the cost of the permit. He said anyone who needs to report code violations must call 814-761-1185.
In other business, the council voted to approve:
- sending the borough secretary to a Department of Conservation of Natural Resources grant workshop on Nov. 20 in Clarion.
- paying the bills for August, in the amount of $27,710.29.