The Indiana County Municipal Services Authority held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 28 for a two-phase project at the Windy Ridge Business and Technology Park and water line renovation projects throughout the county totaling around $6.6 million.
The ribbon-cutting served as a dedication for ICMSA's Water Renovation 15 and 16 projects, funded through the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PennVest).
State and local officials visited the Windy Ridge site, where a 700,000-gallon storage tank and water mains were installed earlier this year to prepare the park for about a dozen commercial tenants – including Creps United Publications, which started operations at Windy Ridge in December after a fire destroyed the company's Philadelphia Street headquarters in October 2012.
With Creps looking to reopen quickly following the fire, water line work at Windy Ridge was a priority.
“It was an accelerated schedule,” ICMSA executive director Mike Duffalo said. “What we did after we got the first part of it in, along with the tank, we went back and did the rest of the 12- and eight-inch water lines throughout the commerce park. I'm going to say in sum total we probably spent $1.8 million in Windy Ridge. Phase One was to get the tank built and in service so we could give fire protection to Creps. Then we did the rest of the park.”
Water Renovation 15 included $2.4 million in work to connect a line from Heilwood to Alverda in Pine Township, renovations at the Cherry Tree water plant and a line from Cherry Tree to Green Township.
Water Renovation 16 included the work at Windy Ridge and what Duffalo called the Parkwood extension.
“The sum total of the entire project was $4.2 million. It was funded by PennVest,” Duffalo said of the Water Renovation 16 project, which included the storage tank and water mains at Windy Ridge. “My Parkwood extension included building two new tanks — one in Shelocta and one on Parkwood Road — as well as running water lines all the way to West Lebanon.”
Duffalo estimated about 200 new residential customers will be served by the projects while water mains are in place for additional commercial customers at the roughly 200-acre Windy Ridge plan.
Greg Reinbold is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-459-6100, ext. 2913 or greinbold@tribweb.com.
