A Cambria County town is taking on another multi-million dollar project. This time, Ebensburg will be tearing up the streets to put in new sewer lines.
“It’s an expensive project. It has an impact on a lot of people, on a lot of streets,” said borough manager Dan Penatzer. “Biggest impact we’ve undertaken and we’ve undertaken a lot of projects here in Ebensburg.”
The next on the list is the much-needed overhaul of the antiquated sewer system, as required by the Department of Environmental Protection.
“Because of all the infiltration, the storm water that gets in to the system, the system gets surcharged,” Penatzer said. “It gets so overloaded that an overflow opens and there’s a direct discharge into clean streams. And DEP is requiring – and I guess rightfully so – that those be eliminated.”
Penatzer said they think they can cut down the cost to $9 million. Grant money will pay for part of it, but the rest of the debt will come out of your pocket. You’ll see the almost $9 per month increase on your bill in July.
“It’s just this continued cost of living increase, increase, increase in Ebensburg, PA,” said resident Rick Ardini. “I mean it’s a safe community and it’s a great community, but you can only take so much money from people.”
Remember that 10-year-old, millions-of-dollars-worth sidewalk project they just finished? Some of it will be dug up.
“Ebensburg does a great job of making the town beautiful, but I would think there has to be more to it as far as in the order that you do things and when you do things, like doing the sewer lines prior to doing the new sidewalks,” Ardini said.
“It will cause a headache,” Penatzer said. “It’s an awful lot of dirt and dust and mud and traffic detours. It’s an inconvenience. It’s a long inconvenience. It’s going to be a mess, but it’s one of those things that we’re required to do and in the end, it’s going to eliminate a lot of problems.”
The plan is to finish permit approvals by the end of this year, apply for funding, and then begin construction in 2017.
Residents with questions are encouraged to attend of the borough’s upcoming meetings.
Those meetings, all at the municipal building, are as follows:
Tuesday, June 7th at 6 p.m.
Wednesday, June 8th 1 p.m.
Saturday, June 11th 1 p.m.
