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MILL HALL -- A new update on the Cottage Lane waterline situation gives hope for its residents.
During Monday night's Bald Eagle Township supervisors meeting, Clinton County's Director of Planning/County Engineer, Stephen Gibson, gave a positive update on the future of the ongoing waterline project.
Despite losing commitment from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), through the Capacity Enhancement Program, Gibson and the county have picked up other grants to help fund the project.
After the project was left without a funding applicant, Gibson gave some hope for Cottage Lane residents with bad well water, and the township itself. During a meeting, held with DEP in August, Gibson said he believed it would have been a "kickoff to start engineering." However, it was further from the truth as DEP believed there was not enough commitment for their engineer to work with.
"I went into that meeting thinking it was a kickoff meeting to start engineering and then the engineer and DEP basically got cold feet and said there is not enough of a commitment from the county and the township for them to put their engineer to work," Gibson said. "I don't know what they're looking for, they don't need an agreement, they just need to have this feeling that things are going to get done."
With backing out, it set the project back to square one and to acquire eligible engineering.
Due to the area of the water lines being in wetlands, it could take up to a year for engineering permitting, according to Gibson.
However, the county has secured $500,000 in appropriation funding from Senator Bob Casey to use toward the project. This would cover about half of the overall bill of the project at an original estimate of $1.3 million.
Gibson said he met with members of the Cottage Lane Association in order to look at the meters and lines. In turn, he believes the project could be lessened in price from the original estimate, according to water line maps through the golf course and Cottage Lane.
"I have a better feeling about what's going on now. I think we could actually hone the price down a little bit from $1.3 million... We think we can get the cost under control," Gibson said.
The next step will be for the Cottage Lane Association to have a confidential income survey conducted. This survey could help secure a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) that could cover the entirety of the project.
However, this would only be if 50 percent of residents are eligible for the low to moderate income (LMI) threshold, according to Gibson.
"The next thing we are going to be doing is, we are going to be working with the township and Cottage Lane Association to perform a confidential income survey. We did an income survey a year or two ago. The CDBG income threshold has actually gone up twice, meaning more people might be eligible for CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funds and if 50 percent of the people are eligible for this LMI of threshold, they could actually pay for the entire project," he explained.
With the LMI survey being the next step, Gibson added it is the best thing to get responses back from residents to help the project. If the county receives no responses, he said they'll assume those residents are above the threshold.
"That could skew the survey. But if we can get under that LMI threshold... we can get a lot more funding for the project," Gibson said.
Along with the survey, tap water samples will be tested. This would also help with funding as there would be evidence of problems with the resident's water. Gibson and the county are looking for other avenues for funding in the meantime.
In other business, supervisor Stephen Tasselli has met with Lock Haven Police Chief, Matthew Rickard, to help get coverage in the township.
"We had a really good conversation. I told him we were looking for some coverage, that we tried to approach Mill Hall on several occasions -- we didn’t get any satisfaction or any coverage and that we still wanted to talk. They were amiable to speak with us," he said.
However, due to Lock Haven City Hall becoming contaminated, it has put off an official meeting for the next few weeks. Tasselli said he will be meeting with Rickard in the coming weeks and possibly negotiate terms with the township.