MAWC OKs Hempfield sewer project after 4-year delay

Sewer lines will be extended near Baltzer Meyer Road and Fort Allen Elementary School in Hempfield in a nearly $500,000 project that’s been stalled for four years.

Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County board members awarded a contract with W.A. Petrakis Inc. of Penn Township to install more than 7,000 feet of sewer lines. The company will be paid at least $479,000 to complete what is expected to be a six-month job to service seven homes and additional farm fields that could see future development, according to MAWC business manager Brian Hohman.

Legal delays prompted by lawsuits filed by property owners challenging the authority’s efforts to condemn land needed for the extension led to the project being put on hold since 2020. Work was cleared to begin earlier this year after the state Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Commonwealth Court ruling that upheld the authority’s condemnation efforts.

Officials said the contractor agreed to work under the same terms first proposed in 2020, but a deal was reached to renegotiate other expenses related to the increased costs of supplies since the original proposal was submitted.

Hohman said MAWC was required complete the sewer line extension as part of the authority’s $57 million deal reached in 2016 with Hempfield to purchase the township’s sewer system. Money to pay for the sewer extension transferred from Hempfield to MAWC as part of the sale, officials said.