The Bradford City Water Authority is working on getting funding to extend water service to the Kenmar Acres area and to a section along Bolivar Drive.
Executive Director Steve Disney said the authority voted at its meeting Tuesday in favor of applying for a $419,050 grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority through the PA Small Water and Sewer Grant Program. The grant would require the authority to match 15 percent of funds for the project.
Service in that area currently extends through the Colonial Heights area.
In other news, the authority and McKean County Conservation District are looking to add the Gilbert Reservoir to a recreation project that is in the planning stages. The two agencies are working together using grant funds to build ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible fishing piers and canoe launches at both the Gilbert and Marilla reservoirs.
E&M Engineers have been brought on board to prepare construction drawings, technical specifications and a topographic survey with the purpose of adding Gilbert to the bid package that already includes Marilla, according to Disney. Revised specs are expected to go out for bid in late December or early January, and officials are hopeful construction will start in spring 2017.
The authority may soon be able to refill Gilbert Dam after a rehabilitation project there, too. Disney said the Department of Dam Safety in Harrisburg is reviewing the authority’s as-built drawings, and the authority anticipates hearing within the next couple of weeks whether refilling may begin.
Meanwhile, the authority will soon learn whether water main lines will have to be moved to accommodate two Rapid Bridge Replacement projects in Foster Township by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The bridges, to be replaced sometime in 2017, are on Derrick Road and Olean Road.
Disney explained that PennDOT subcontractors and authority employees will use small test excavations to determine precisely where the water main lines are to decide whether they will need to be relocated. The excavations have not been scheduled.
Another ongoing project — installing remotely controlled reservoir valves at Reservoir #4 and the Kendall Avenue Tank — will soon be moving forward.
Disney reported that Wm. T. Spaeder has been contracted for the construction after last month’s bid opening, and project material submittals are in the works. A construction start date can be chosen once the company learns the material delivery date.
Disney explained at the September meeting that the valves could mitigate the impact of future water emergencies by isolating drinking water to be stored for use.
The authority approved the purchase of a 2017 Ford F-250 truck at a cost of $40,650, which includes the trade-in of the aging 2008 Ford F-250 truck the agency current uses.
