Officials move forward on storm-water plan

NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Work on a countywide storm-water management plan is expected to begin soon in Lawrence County.
County commissioners will decide Tuesday if they will hire L. Robert Kimball & amp; Associates to handle phase one of the plan, which will cost $12,000.
Amy McKinney, county planner, said 75 percent of the cost will be reimbursed by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the rest will be covered by in-kind services from the county.
She said Kimball will do research and data collection for this phase of the project. Implementing a new storm-water management plan would be phase two, she added. There is no cost estimate for the second phase.
McKinney said Enon Valley Borough, Neshannock and New Beaver townships are the only communities in the county with storm-water management plans. Anything adopted by the county that is more stringent must be adhered to by all municipalities in the county, she noted.
In other business, Commissioner Dan Vogler asked that a public meeting be held in the next month to go over an early-intervention report compiled by RDM Associates for the county. Commissioners hired the company last year to look at county finances and make recommendations.
Vogler said a draft report given to commissioners about six weeks ago stated there were no current financial problems but warned that decreases in federal funding could cause problems in the next few years.