Contractors likely will not finish the Yough Sanitary Authority public sewage project on time. The deadline is Sept. 10, but Shallenberger Construction is only 48 percent finished with laying pipe in Vanderbilt, Dunbar Township and Franklin Township, and 19 percent complete laying pipe in Dawson and Lower Tyrone Township. Port Vue Plumbing is 42 percent finished with the wastewater treatment plant and two pump stations. A-1 Electric, which cannot complete its work until the plant and pump stations are further along, is 35 percent finished.
Project manager Marie Hartman told the authority board at its regular meeting Monday that Shallenberger has requested a 90-day extension on its contracts, which would mean the project would not be complete before the end of the year. The Rural Utilities Service, a unit of the USDA, which is partly funding the project, would have to approve any extension. So would the state, which is providing funding. Hartman said Shallenberger did not provide justification for the extension at the July job conference. She said the board should not yet consider the request.
Port Vue already asked for a 30-day extension and the state withheld $17,000 from its first payment request.
In other business:
= Fayette County charged the authority $1,022 for a building permit for the plant, even though the plant will not be occupied and benefit the community.
= John Harim, with Odyssey Communication, a Port Vue subcontractor, told the board that a casing pipe to pass under the Youghiogheny River from Dawson to the treatment plant in Dickerson Run has broken. Hartman will check with RUS to determine how to proceed.
= Vanderbilt Borough Council approved leasing space on the ground floor for an authority office. Solicitor Richard Husband is drawing up a lease. The authority will pay $250 per month.
= Rumors that Dawson residents will pay $95 a month for sewage and that the authority is bankrupt are false. Hartman said all 700 customers will pay $45 per month, no matter where they live. The authority has sufficient funds for the project.
= Because of Labor Day, the next authority meeting will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 4 at the Vanderbilt Borough Building.
