Keystone Park sewage suggestion: Spread cost among Derry Township authority customers

Many, but far from all, who attended an informational meeting last week voiced support for a proposed project that would extend public sewer lines and a recreational trail through Derry Township, from New Alexandria to Keystone State Park.

The problem supporters of the project are faced with: How to pay back a $1.5 million low-interest PennVest loan that is part of the available funding for the $2.6 million sewage portion of the work.

Project advocate Ellen Keefe, a member of the Derry Township Municipal Authority that is in charge of the proposed effort, switched to the perspective of a private citizen to lead the meeting at New Alexandria Community Center.

If the owners of the 37 properties to be served by the new sewer line were held responsible for the entire loan repayment, each would be billed about $120 per month, Keefe said.

“We don’t want that,” she said. “Nobody wants it.”

As an alternative, Keefe suggested limiting the monthly fee to $60 and spreading the remaining 20 years of debt service among all of the authority’s existing 4,504 customers.

“I was opposed to spreading the cost until I ran the numbers myself,” she said.

According to Keefe, the authority would need to charge just 83 cents per month to each of its existing customers to cover the funding gap. “It’s a candy bar; it’s a cup of coffee; it’s less than a gallon of gas,” she said of the monetary amount.

Some homeowners in attendance said they consider even the $60 monthly figure too steep a cost for sewage service. Some also objected to the $1,500 tap-in fee the authority would charge.

Keefe organized the informational session after fellow authority members moved last month’s board meeting to stop the dual sewage and trail project. The motion was tabled, but Keefe expressed concern that it could be revisited and the long-planned project shelved at the authority’s Wednesday meeting.

She urged all those who have an interest in the project, particularly the affected property owners, to contact the authority to express their wishes concerning the project.

The project would replace the aging, self-contained sewage treatment system at Keystone State Park, adding another 25 equivalent dwelling units to be served by the authority.

Keefe said the sewer project won’t be possible without the trail project. While the trail development is fully funded with about $2 million in state grants, Keefe noted one of those grants, totaling $474,000, serves as a match for funds approved for the sewer line. Also, the trail will be laid out on the same right-of-way that will be used to install the sewer main.

A few people expressed concern about the trail running next to their property and worried that it might become a pathway for criminal activity.

Having public sewage service increases the value of a home, Keefe said. She also argued that the proposed project would help protect local water quality while boosting economic development.

Derry Township resident Greg McBroom spoke in support of the sewer project — to lay the groundwork for development and growth of the local tax base, and to avoid being forced by environmental regulators to extend the service at a later date, when costs will be higher and less funding may be available.

“If we are forced to do this project 10 years or 20 years from now, and we don’t have any infrastructure to bring people in, it’s going to be astronomical the cost burden were going to have to carry,” McBroom said.

Ron Hill, owner of Miller’s Campground on Flowers Road, is among property owners who have expressed interest in obtaining sewage service but are outside the scope of the currently proposed project. “You can bank on it that (public) sewage will come,” he said. “I don’t mind paying my fair share.”

If the authority abandons the project and forfeits the various funding that has been approved, Keefe predicted, “don’t ever expect any grants to come to Derry Township again.”

She said the authority has incurred about $350,000 in engineering costs for the project — a bill that would be covered by the project funding but will be paid from the authority’s general fund if the project is dropped.