RIDGWAY — During a budget meeting on Thursday, Ridgway Borough officials briefly discussed the need to replace water lines within the borough.

According to Ridgway Borough Manager Paul McCurdy, some water lines in the borough are 100 years old and need to be replaced.

One such line broke between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning on West Main Street and caused damage to the roadway and caused the whole Ridgway area to be placed under a boil water advisory.

McCurdy said that age was the likely cause of the break.

When the boroughs’ road crew extracted the pipe from the ground, a 12-foot long crack in the pipe was found along with corrosion on the outside surface.

McCurdy said on Thursday that the borough has more pipes between the O.B. Grant Park and the Clarion River that are over 100 years old.

Up to this point, the borough has been replacing water lines when funds become available, however McCurdy suggested that the borough should consider finding funds to replace some lines now or taking a loan to do the project.

Ridgway Borough Councilman Steve Keener said that one of the best solutions to the problem may be to use the borough’s truck waste fund to fund some water line replacements.

Some funds for water line replacement will be included in the borough’s 2017 budget as part of the water fund.

According to McCurdy, $40,000 will be reserved for water line replacements out of the borough’s water fund.

Other significant capital improvement functions will be included in the budget as well as the borough is expecting to spend $120,000 for upgrades at the filtration plant and $70,000 on SCADA system upgrades throughout the distribution system.

The $120,000 upgrade at the filtration plant is to start a pilot program with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for the borough to use Chlorine Dioxide in its processing to remove manganese and iron at the filtration plant and reduce the risk for disinfection byproducts to develop in the distribution system.

The borough’s water and sewer funds balance without the need for rate increases.

In the sewer fund, the borough is expected a few major projects, including a $250,000 project in the Montmorenci Road area.

McCurdy said that the borough previously had testing done on its sewer system and found places in which stormwater was entering into the sewer lines.

The $250,000 project would aim to seal the sewer system and prevent stormwater from entering it.