HOLLIDAYSBURG — Residents of flood prone areas in Gaysport will have to wait several more months for the long-awaited stormwater mitigation project to begin, as the state Department of Environmental Protection ruled this week that the borough must complete a larger Phase II study.

According to Borough Manager Ethan Imhoff, DEP officials communicated the decision to his office on Monday after a 90-day review period initiated in November 2025.

The borough encountered several Native American artifacts during initial site work in early 2025, prompting a Phase I study by the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office to determine the scope of artifact inclusion on the proposed project site.

The Phase I study, which required excavation of 1% of the land reserved for the project, revealed additional artifacts.

The preservation office in June 2025 recommended conducting a Phase II study that would require 3% of the total land to be searched for artifacts after analyzing the findings of the first phase.

This Phase II study will incur a “setback of several months,” Imhoff said during a Thursday night meeting.

Hollidaysburg officials had hoped to avoid the Phase II study by submitting the project permit application in November without a Phase II study, but this request was denied.

Imhoff could not offer an exact timetable when the Phase II study would begin, since the ground is still frozen rendering substantial excavation untenable.

The results of the Phase II study will determine if a Phase III mitigation plan is necessary.

Imhoff said he hopes that the project does not require a Phase III plan and that project consultants advised the borough that the site likely did not contain a significant Native American settlement that would prompt a study of that magnitude.

Imhoff said the borough is working with the office of state Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, to identify additional sources of grant funding to cover the added costs for the project.