Stewartstown Borough wants to pay for $1.5M sewer plant exansion

The Stewartstown Borough Council is beginning to consider ways to finance a proposed $1 million to $1.5 million sewer treatment plant expansion.  Scott Shearer of Public Financial Management this month gave the council a list of options to consider when looking at ways to pay for the expansion.

“Extremely low interest rates,” make this a good time to borrow money, likely through a bond issue, he said. Or, he said, the borough could use some of its reserves. Or the sewer authority could borrow the money.

The advantages to having the borough borrow the money include lower up-front costs, lower interest rates and lower annual fees. Also, the authority would be required to put money in a reserve fund but the borough would not, he said.

Shearer said if the borough borrows $1 million at 4.5 percent interest over 10 years, annual payments would be $115,000. The same loan over 20 years would carry $75,000 in annual payments.

Borrowing $1.5 million at the same interest rate would mean annual payments of $170,000 over 10 years or $115,000 over 20 years, he said.

However, the borough still needs approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to proceed with the project, said engineer Dennis Sarpen.

Even though it could be spring before the borough is ready to bid the project it is not too early to begin to plan, Shearer said.

In other business:

--- Mayor Richard Hall swore in new police officer Kory Saylor.

--- Councilman Richard Nixon said he will be resigning at the end of the year because of personal obligations.

---Councilman Jeff Bruening is preparing a list of lawn care contractors to be called on to mow properties when owners fail to do so. The owners will be billed for the work at 110 percent as permitted by ordinance. The same contractors may also be hired to shovel snow from public sidewalks when property owners fair to do so, he said.

--- The council approved Trick or Treat for 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 31. Residents who wish to be visited by little ghosts and goblins are asked to turn on their porch light.