Export officials: Sewage surcharge to remain in place for now

An $8 surcharge on Export sewage customers was only supposed to be in place for a year. Yet, when it came up for a vote in May, council members voted to keep it in place.

With bills totaling more than $50,000 coming in related to its ongoing long-term flood control project as well as two state consent orders, Mayor Joe Zaccagnini said he didn’t want to keep the surcharge but felt the borough had little choice. A significant portion of the surcharge was going toward flow monitors that were required to remain in place three months longer than expected.

Zaccagnini this week apologized to residents and property owners, including landlord Bill Powell, who said residents “were basically not told the truth” when the surcharge was approved.

“You’re exactly right,” Zaccagnini said at Tuesday’s council meeting. “We said we’d get rid of it, and we did keep it on. And we have $87,000 from the American Rescue Plan which we’re told can be used for sewage and infrastructure. We’ve received about $40,000 so far. But we don’t know precisely how we can spend it.”

Communities throughout Western Pennsylvania have encountered similar challenges in determining how to spend federal pandemic relief funding. In Murrysville, officials hired a consultant in November to help them determine the proper way to spend their nearly $2 million allotment.

“As soon as we can, we’re hoping to remove the $8 surcharge,” Zaccagnini said.

One of the two consent orders muddies the financial waters even further. A consent order involving the Franklin Township Municipal Sanitary Authority and its nine client communities provides a framework and a timeline to address longstanding issues with stormwater inflow and infiltration in the system. It does not, however, provide a cost estimate to fix it.

“It’s unusual in that we’re agreeing to an order to find out what the problem is, then figuring out what exactly the problem is, then figuring out a way to pay for that problem,” Delmont solicitor Dan Hewitt said in 2019, when Delmont agreed to the consent order.

Attorney Wes Long, who serves as solicitor to both Export and FTMSA, said it’s possible the $8 surcharge could continue, “once we determine the final cost of the plan to address the issues in the consent order.”

Gravel donation

Keystone Christian Church congregation members Eugene Zottola, Jason Carnley and Justice Carnley will make a donation of three truckloads of small gravel to help level a few areas of the borough’s parking lot on either side of the new replica of the Export train station building.

“That’s some pretty large gravel down there, and we have some older folks and ladies with high heels, and it can be tough to get around,” Zottola said. “We figured, we use the lot, we don’t have to pay to have it plowed, but if we can help by donating gravel, that’ll help as we head into winter when it’s only going to get worse.”

Zottola will bring the gravel to the borough’s public works department, whose members will spread it.

‘Heritage Square Park’

Borough officials will consider renaming the area where the war memorial and train station replica are located as “Heritage Square Park” at their January council meeting.

Councilman and Export Historical Society member John Nagoda said not only will it give the area a name, but could also help with future grant applications.