The Bradford Sanitary Authority has made an effort to help with economic development in the city’s downtown.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved writing off previous bad debt delinquencies for sanitary and stormwater services relating to several properties along West Washington Street, which have been recently purchased by the Downtown Bradford Business Revitalization Corp.
Sanitary Authority Executive Director Steve Disney said, “DBRC plans to demolish these properties and construct new housing.”
In other matters, he said the 2024 operating budget preparations are nearly complete, and the authority is awaiting November results to finalize the budget proposal. The authority also amended its rules and regulations to allow video and audio recording of meetings, and approved having an updated comprehensive property survey conducted.
Also at the meeting, the Bradford Sanitary Authority board recognized employees for being named the Pennsylvania Rural Water Association Wastewater Treatment plant of the year.
The criteria for the award was based on the demonstrated skills, abilities and proactive training programs of BSA employees and was not based on equipment or treatment system performance.
An update to the ongoing story of the pollution permit was given, in that the Environmental Protection Agency published a notice indicating it plans to approve the authority’s program. “After completion of the 30-day comment period, BSA will be notified of EPA’s decision of approval or disapproval of these modifications,” said Disney.
He said the timber sale has been completed. It was an ash salvage harvesting of 165,000 board feet of timber.
The possibility of a cellular communications tower on authority property remains under consideration, though Verizon engineers have moved the proposed location to the south side of authority property.
In his report to the board, Disney said an informational training session and luncheon was held Nov. 1 for all Industrial Pretreatment dischargers into the wastewater treatment plant. The agenda included site visits on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The luncheon allowed authority members to share information from a recent EPA inspection.
Operators Matt Dennis and John Eakin participated in the wastewater collection exam this past week, and Dennis took the lab supervisors exam. Plant operators are beginning to review new standard operating procedures to enhance efficiency, knowledge and standardization.
Disney said the Pa. Rural Water Association has requested use of the authority’s training room for a wastewater related training class on Feb. 21. The topic will be on hydraulics, pumps and bearings.
While overall stormwater and sewer delinquency rates have decreased, municipal liens had to be placed on four properties owned by Steven Kloss due to mounting delinquencies, Disney said.
In a field operations report, this year to date, a total of 25,434 lineal feet (an additional 1,307 feet since the last meeting) have been assessed and cleaned, including 88 manholes. A total of 87,079 lineal feet have been completed, which is 37% of the system.
For the stormwater system, a total of 37,880 lineal feet have been inspected and cleaned (an additional 8,146 since the last meeting), including 400 catch basins and 94 manholes. An overall total of 77,609 lineal feet have been completed, which represents 42% of the total system.
