LAWRENCE COUNTY New Castle officials discuss sewage-system repairs

City officials want to raise sewer rates by $2 per month to pay for the work.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- City council and city administrators seem to be at odds over repairs needed for the crumbling sewage and storm-water infrastructure.
Gary Chuey of Baker Engineering, the city's sewage engineering firm, outlined problems with the Century old storm water and sewage drain system for council Tuesday night.
City administrators want to borrow $4 million, through the sale of bonds, to pay for some of the repairs and think it needs to be done before July 1 because of rising interest rates.
But city council members say they aren't comfortable with borrowing the money and want to look for alternatives.
"Next week several of us are attending the Pennsylvania League of Cities meeting and we'd like to look for alternatives," said Christine Sands, city council president.
Sands said they are looking for a way to come up with money for street paving next year also and would like to work the sewers and paving into the same financing.
What would be required
But city consultant John DiMuccio said that's unlikely because borrowing money for paving would have to be supported by a property-tax increase. But city officials have the option of increasing sewage use fees to pay back the money borrowed for the sewer project.
The current proposal calls for increasing the minimum charge for sewage use by $2 per month, said Tammi Gibson, city business administrator. Residents are billed quarterly and the minimum charge is $16. It would become $22 under the current plan.
Chuey noted that work hasn't been done on the city sanitary system since the 1970s and work has never been done on the storm-sewer system. He estimates it is about 100 years old.
There are an estimated 100 miles of sanitary-sewer lines and 2,000 sanitary manholes in the city. Work on the downtown revitalization project has covered only three miles of lines and about 35 manholes, he said.
"You can't use something forever without repairing it. It takes money to do it. We've gotten more life out of our sewers than most places," Chuey said.
Concerned callers
Mayor Wayne Alexander said his office gets calls daily about sewage seeping into people's basements from crumbling lines.
"If we don't do this now, we are doing a disservice to the city and the citizens because it's going to cost more in the future," he said.
In other business, city council instructed city Solicitor Paula Cialella to look into creating an ordinance banning pit bulls in the city.
Atty. Cialella said she was unsure if it was lawful to ban a certain breed of animal.
cioffi@vindy.com