In Governor Ed Rendell\u2019s budget for fiscal year 2004, Act 339 funding for sewage authorities was eliminated. That elimination will cost the Tyrone Borough $148,000.
\nSince the enactment of Act 339 in 1953, approximately $875 million in subsidy payments were made to more than 1,000 communities, authorities, counties and school districts to help offset the cost of operating and maintaining wastewater treatment systems.
\nAccording to the Department of Environmental Protection acting deputy secretary John Hines, \u201cWe are not aware of any other state that has provided this particular type of financial assistance.\u201d
\nIn 2002, through DEP and the Act 339 funding, $425 million was provided in low-interest loans and grants for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects in Pennsylvania.
\nThe loss of Act 339 funding will have a direct impact on the Tyrone Borough sewage rates.
\n\u201cThis is devastating to us,\u201d said Tyrone Mayor Pat Stoner. \u201cLast year we struggled with the loss of Westvaco revenue. Borough employees gave up raises and most of the council gave up their 2002 salaries to help make up for the shortfall and avoid a tax or sewer hike. The loss of the $148,000 from Act 339 funding is very tough to take.\u201d
\nTyrone borough has the lowest sewage rates in the region. The last hike in sewage rates was in 1983 and there has been a reduction since then.
\n\u201cThis is more than 10 percent of our annual budget,\u201d said Tim Nulton, Tyrone sewer superintendent. \u201cWe haven\u2019t received the $148,000 in state funding that we had budgeted. We normally receive that in September or October and with the repeal of Act 339, we won\u2019t be getting any of that money.\u201d
\nFollowing the closing of Westvaco in 2001, the Tyrone Sewer Authority tightened up the budget for 2003.
\n\u201cWe cut in the budget as close as we could and still operate,\u201d said Nulton. \u201cLosing $148,000 in funding will give council decisions to make. We need funding to keep the plant operating and the budget for next year probably will be higher because we have been using spare parts that we had in stock and we are using them up.\u201d
\n\u201cWe will look at every option out there to make up for this loss in funding,\u201d said Stoner. \u201cIn the final analysis, a sewage rate hike is a possibility.\u201d
\nNulton believes that more than the Tyrone Borough customers will be affected.
\n\u201cWhen we calculate the bill for Northern Blair\u2019s usage, they will help make up for the funding loss,\u201d said Nulton. We calculate their costs right off the top. It is for the authorities to decide, but there almost has to be a rate increase to keep operating.\u201d
\nThe Northern Blair Regional Sewer Authority made it clear at its meeting yesterday that there would not be a rate hike.
\n\u201cWe planned for this in advance,\u201d said NBRSA Chairman Charles Diehl. \u201cWe don\u2019t foresee any rate hikes for the Northern Blair Regional Sewer Authority.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Governor Ed Rendell\u2019s budget for fiscal year 2004, Act 339 funding for sewage authorities was eliminated. That elimination will cost the Tyrone Borough $148,000. Since the enactment of Act 339 in 1953, approximately $875 million in subsidy payments were made to more than 1,000 communities, authorities, counties and school districts to help offset the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}