East Deer is set to be a hub of improvement work this spring and summer according to township officials.
“We have five major projects that are going to be constructed this year,” Commissioners chairman Tony Taliani said. “We’ve been approved for grants for all of them.”
The projects include:
• completion of the Marion Street sewer project;
• construction of the Murrayhill Road water line;
• improvements to Memorial Park;
• repairs to and painting of the township bridge on Bailies Run Road;
• demolition of abandoned structures, one on Clarks Pike and one on Days Run Road.
The improvements to Memorial Park include the construction of a storage shed and grandstand. The work will be financed by a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources with the township providing an additional $15,000 in matching funds.
Completion of the Marion Street sanitary sewer repairs will be done with a $98,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), which is federal money funnled through the Allegheny Valley North Council of Governments. Taliani said the township would have to come up with a 35 percent match of the final cost while the grant will pay for the other 65 percent.
“We have to wait and see how the bids come in,” Taliani said.
“That is going to be between $550,000 and $600,000 that we will have spent on Marion Street.”
The project includes water line as well as sewer line improvements on the street.
The Murrayhill Road water line project is replacement of a line on that road as well as a short stretch of line serving about three households on Keller Alley, Taliani said.
He said the actual project cost is uncertain, as bids have not been sought, but the estimate is between $90,000 and $100,000. He said that also involves CDBG funds with the same 65%-35% match requirement.
The repairs and painting of the Bailies Run Bridge also will be financed through federal CDBG money but a township match will not be required.
“I think right now the grant is for $32,000, but I think they could add some more to that with money left over from some other projects,” Taliani said.
He said the bridge has holes on the deck and there may also be some minor repairs needed to the understructure.
“It’s definitely not a major reconstruction,” Taliani said.
