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ournal-herald THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2024 • Volume 43 – No. 43 ©2024, THE JOURNAL-HERALD. All Rights Reserved
CONTINUING: THE WHITE HAVEN JOURNAL ESTABLISHED 1879–145th YEAR, NO. 30
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CONTINUING: THE WEATHERLY HERALD ESTABLISHED 1880–145th YEAR, NO. 4
Signs of the times?
If the signs erected around White Haven and in Kidder Township on Monday are any indication, heavy equipment to begin work on the Interstate 80 bridge reconstruction project may finally be arriving in our area. Though still covered, like the sign in the center picture, River Road closure signs begin at the top of Berwick Street and are in place on the bridge. Lehigh Gorge State Park directional signs have been put into place going west on Route 940 (Berwick Street), and along Church Street going north. Road Closed signs are at the ready, as of press time still stored at the Wagman building on Main Street. Neither the Wagman website nor the PennDOT District 5 project pages provide a timeline. JH: Ruth Isenberg
Uniform sewer hook-up fees suggested for Penn Lake by Suzanne Winters This month’s Penn Lake Borough council work session included discussion over the borough’s sewer hook-up fee and how the fee should be set. Borough solicitor John Dean advised council this must be the same set fee for all property owners, and asked why there was such a variance in sewer fees between properties. According to council members Paul Rogan and Corey Beltz, the reason is due to the distance
from the grinder pump to the sewer line on each property. Some property owners placed the pump closer to the line and others may have placed it farther away, which involved more digging and piping, costing the borough more money for the hook-up. It was decided to do more work on a sewer hook-up fee schedule which would be discussed again at future meetings. The current hook-up fee is $11,300. During the regular meeting following the work session, Beltz
advised council there was one new sewer application received this past month for Horseshoe Drive. There were 4 new grinder pump change outs, and only 3 pumps left in reserve. Council voted to acquire a new supply of grinder pumps from Site Specific. The company offered a $50 per unit discount on the pumps when buying 6 or more, and an additional $50 when buying 12 pumps. Council approved purchasing 12 new grinder pumps at a cost of $32,727 and passed a motion
authorizing $33,000 for this purchase. Beltz also said he spoke with Aqua Pennsylvania employee Robbie Gower about possibly flushing out the sewer system, to determine if there was an issue somewhere causing grinder pumps to fail. He suggested council meet with Gower to
See PENN LAKE, page 5