Regardless of their personal financial situations, residents of North Belle Vernon are considered to be poor.
You know - as in, "Those poor residents of North Belle Vernon have been putting up with that project for way too long."
"That project," of course, is the borough's on-again, off-again sewer separation project - arguably one of the most mismanaged public initiatives in the history of the region, if not the entire state.
First begun in 2002, the goal was to have separate sewer systems for wastewater and stormwater.
Five years later, with the goal a long way from being realized, the project's legacy has been to create unreasonably harsh living conditions for more than a few borough residents.
During the past five years, far too many residents of the town have had to drive their cars through pothole-marked streets that at times have generated enough dust to make the simple act of sitting on a porch virtually unthinkable.
And they were forced to endure those conditions knowing they eventually would be billed for the privilege.
Hopefully, the most recent resumption of the protracted project will do what other startups have filed to do - finish the job in an efficient, acceptable and timely fashion.
Only then will the "poor residents of North Belle Vernon" be able to put the lunacy of the past five years behind them.
