Kittanning Borough and Sewage Authority Ask Senator for Help

Kittanning Borough Council President Gerald Shuster voiced his support of a letter that was recently sent to Senator Don White by Kittanning Sewage Authority Chairman Peter Graff asking the Senator to intervene in a recent DEP decision.

by Nathan Lasher

Following in the footsteps of the Kittanning Sewage Authority, Kittanning Borough Council voted, during a meeting held Monday evening, to send a letter to Senator Don White requesting him to intervene in a recent decision made by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

“The Sewage Authority is being very proactive on trying to protect the community by requesting the closure clamps or ‘duck bills’ at the end of where storm sewer water goes into the river from some of the huge piping or sewers,” said Council President Gerald Shuster. “Basically, there is some money left over from the recent project that’s ongoing in the community. They made a request to allow that money to be spent to cap those pipes. Unfortunately, DEP prohibited them from expending the funds to do that, and we’re at a loss to understand why because it would have protected people especially in key areas like Vine Street, Mulberry Street, and a couple of other areas that are targeted every time the river rises to a certain level. Those pipes have no shut-off valves on them.”

According to Shuster, Chairman of the Sewage Authority, Peter Graff, sent a letter to Senator White asking him to use his influence to get the DEP to allow the Sewage Authority to expend the available funds.

“We’re concerned, as I’m sure the residents and property owners are on all of those streets that continually get backflow water, that there are no caps on there,” said Shuster. “So, we’re hopeful that Senator White is able to influence DEP to allow us to do that because that could occur within the next six weeks and would be a dramatic safety device and prevention system for Kittanning Borough all the way up and down the river bank. So, I know that from time to time we have had residents from Vine Street, in particular, come here to Council and petition us to do that, and we really weren’t in a position to do that because of the expense; it’s about $135,000 for each of those cap systems. If the Sewage Authority is willing to do that, it certainly is a dramatic savings for the Borough. So, we are very happy that the Sewage Authority is doing it, number one, but we are particularly happy that Peter Graff took the initiative to write that letter then we did the follow-up.”

After a short discussion, Council Member Ange Turco made a motion that was seconded by Council Member Cindy Housley to concur with Peter Graff in the Council’s own letter to show support for what the Sewage Authority is trying to carry out. The motion was carried.