Blair Township seeking $3.8M for sewer project

Supervisors OK applying for grant money to fund extension

The Blair Township supervisors Tuesday voted to apply for $3.8 million in Community Development Block Grant money from a competitive state program to pay for the second of three sections of a proposed sewer line extension along Reservoir Road.

Because there's an acute need for the $9.5 million overall project to eliminate pollution from many failing septic systems, because sewer infrastructure is a priority for the state and because project design is done, odds are good that the Department of Community and Economic Development will award the grant, said Trina Illig, Blair County's grant administrator for the funding.

The overall proposal to install sewer lines to serve a total of 220 homes along the four-mile stretch from West Loop Road to near Brooks Mill was put on hold in 2020 due to cost-based opposition, but the township is determined now to get the work done via grants, as long as that takes, to minimize financial hardship for residents, according to Supervisors Chairman Paul Amigh.

About a month ago, the township received $3.5 million in Pennsylvania Small Water and Sewer Program money from the state's Commonwealth Financing Authority for the first section of the project, from West Loop Road to near Reservoir Bible Church.

If the township is successful with Tuesday's application, the CDBG money it receives would pay for the section between the church and Monastery Road.

A pair of grants that the Blair Township Water and Sewer Authority recently applied for would pay for the third and final stretch, from Monastery Road to near Brooks Mill -- and authority members seem confident of success, Amigh said Tuesday.

The overall project could be constructed in phases, as money becomes available, starting with the first section, which is closest to the Hollidaysburg Sewer Plant near River Road, where the effluent will go, Illig said.

With grant funding, the project won't raise bills for existing customers of the authority, although the new Reservoir Road customers would need to hook onto the system and be responsible for installation of service lines that could cost $2,000 to $5,000 -- along with paying tap fees of a few hundred dollars, then regular monthly bills, currently $55, officials said.

However, the township plans to use future CDBG money that it receives annually to help those residents make those connections, according to Illig.

The CDBG program serves mainly low-to-moderate income people.

The stretch of Reservoir Road that would be covered Tuesday's CDBG application qualifies because more than 50% of its 140 households are low-to-moderate income, Illig said.

While the township isn't being forced by the state Department of Environmental Protection to do the project, the project is necessary, according to Amigh.

The idea of residents in the area not having sewer service in 2024 is "a problem," he said.

Most of the households that would be served by the proposed extension are in favor of it, said Supervisor Brad Germaux.

"They're tired of dealing with the mess," Germaux said.

That mess includes "human feces in the yards" during storms, sometimes rising up into floor drains, Germaux said.

Half the properties along the stretch for which the township is asking for CDBG money have systems installed before regulations were passed in 1966, according to Sewage Enforcement Officer Luke Helsel, writing to support the CDBG application.

Half of the systems along that stretch are also malfunctioning, according to Helsel.

There are systems that are too small, pipes that take effluent directly to nearby streams or ditches and some "wildcat" cesspools, Helsel wrote.

"This is a no-brainer," Illig said of the project, given that it could be fully funded by grants.

Once the overall extension is installed, "people will get healthier" -- as wells are likely being polluted now, Amigh said.

The project would open up the area for development, according to Amigh, although some residents likely would prefer that it stay the way it is, he conceded.

The project is also likely to increase property values, according to Amigh.

No residents came to the meeting, which was surprising, Amigh said.

The total project will involve construction of 7.1 miles of gravity flow eight-inch plastic main and 2.6 miles of "force" main, according to Keller Engineers, the authority's consulting engineer. Three new pump stations will also be needed.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.