News

July 29, 2008

W-B Twp. eyes multimillion-dollar sewer fix

IAN CAMPBELL Times Leader Correspondent

WILKES-BARRE TWP. – Township officials said Monday they are facing major sewer system rebuilding throughout the southern side of the municipality.

The major concern is that they may not have the money to meet the repair costs, Mayor Carl Kuren said during Monday’s council meeting.

The repair costs may run as high as $4 million, he said.

An $84 sewer fee passed in the early 1990s met the basic costs of the service but failed to build a reserve that could keep up with maintenance costs, Kuren said.

Township officials are considering raising the fee to help meet the repair costs – including nearly a quarter of a million dollars on just Watson and one other street alone – on the mostly 100-year-old lines south of Northampton Street.

The fee would probably have to cover the new bond that would have to be taken out for the work, township business administrator Michael Revitt said.

The fee should have been raised some years ago, said Revitt and Kuren, but revenue from the $52 local services tax helped cover the shortfall.

When the way that tax was collected and levied was changed earlier in the year, it removed $340,000 from the township budget and left the municipality to cover the expense from its general income.

Councilman Gary Polakoski said revenue from mercantile taxes, which made up much of that income in the township, was also likely to be down significantly because of the recent closings of some of restaurants and a general reduction in retail spending.

Because of that, he said he was uneasy about embarking on a major sewer rebuilding project, even though the state had recently announced an assistance plan that would meet half the costs of such projects up to a maximum of $10 million.

Township officials say they will hold off on making changes to the sewer fee, or refinancing and taking on new debt, until they have a clearer picture of the scope of the problem through an engineering assessment.

That assessment itself will play a major part in the cost, as the fee usually represents 10 percent of the total cost, Kuren said.

Township officials are considering raising the fee to help meet the repair costs … on the mostly 100-year-old lines south of Northampton Street.

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