The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

June 24, 2008

Rep. English's plan for water and sewer systems is too late for some

By Tom Davidson

SHARON — It wasn’t one of U.S. Rep. Phil English’s sexiest moments.

The 3rd District congressman from Erie came to Sharon Monday to tout a plan that would help towns with aging water and sewer systems cover the cost of replacing them.

English — flanked by a few local officials at the Sharon pump station in the shadow of Aqua America’s North Water Avenue treatment plant — explained that water and sewer problems may be “unsexy” but they effect people here.

That isn’t news to Sharpsville officials, who recently decided to scrap plans to build a new municipal water plant because of the cost and buy water from Aqua America, the company that provides water to the rest of the Shenango Valley.

Sharpsville was turned down by about every state and federal grant and loan program.

“It’s a little too late for us,” Sharpsville councilman Chris Combine said of the English-sponsored Sustainable Water Infrastructure Investment Act.

The bill would lift the state volume cap on private activity bonds — a tax-free loan for local governments who partner with private entities to fill a public need.

Borough officials would have liked to have used private activity bonds to help pay for a new water plant, which was estimated to cost $10 million.

“But he didn’t even have the courtesy to give us the head’s up that this was even coming,” Sharpsville council President Tom Lally said. “I got an invite (to Monday’s news conference) but purposely didn’t go.”

English said the bill he introduced earlier this month with U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., might help Sharon with future sewer upgrades. The legislation could have helped Sharpsville, “if it were in place five years ago,” English said.

And it won’t likely be considered for passage for a couple years, English said.

If enacted, the law could help other communities in the region like Corry and Cambridge Springs, English said.

“We simply can’t afford to look the other way,” he said. “This to us is a very high priority.”

That’s little comfort to Sharpsville’s Lally.

“We wrote numerous letters,” to English, he said, but they didn’t help.

English, a Republican, is running for his eighth term in Washington. He faces Democrat Kathy Dahlkemper, Erie, in the November election.

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