Upper Providence Sells Sewer Capacity to Newtown Township
The township will sell 103,000 gallons of capacity that according to Upper Providence Township Engineer James Kelly, it will not need in the foreseeable future.
MEDIA–A resolution to sell 103,000 gallons of Upper Providence's sewer capacity to Newtown Township was passed unanimously last Thursday evening.
"Newtown is in dire need of capacity," Upper Providence Township Engineer James Kelly said. "We feel comfortable that we can let them have that [capacity] because our measured flows are being reduced as we speak because with the new system we're putting in, we're well below the standard acceptable rates."
Upper Providence Township has more than 400,000 gallons of capacity, Kelly said.
The township will sell Newtown Township the 103,000 gallons of capacity at the rate Upper Providence paid for the capacity initially.
Newtown, who is currently working on their comprehensive plan and working on a hopefully finalized draft of the Act 537 sewer plan for the township, has several major sewer concerns in its neighborhoods like Echo Valley and Florida Park, where many homes are experienceing failed systems.
Patti Wilson
7:54 am on Friday, August 19, 2011
Mr. Kelly says that Newtown is in dire need of capacity. Newtown has 961,975 gallons of capacity(more than double that of UP). He says that Newtown is in dire need, despite the fact that an engineer from Kelly/Close testified at an appeal hearing of the invalid, inaccurate sewer plan that the Kelly/Close firm prepared for Newtown, that Newtown had plenty of capacity. What he is not saying is that Kelly/Close Engineers have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars of Newtown taxpayers' money for a plan that was declared invalid and inaccurate and was rescinded by the Environmental Hearing Board. He does not say that K/C is waiting for payment of another $160,000 before they will continue work for Newtown Township. The Kelly/Close Engineering firm has removed access to the Newtown Plans on the Newtown Township website--I guess because they want more money from Newtown? So, citizens can't even look at the plans that they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to have prepared. He is also not saying that his firm is the Engineer for Newtown's Municipal Authority, Upper Providence and Claude Deboton(a developer who has a significant amount of property in Newtown). And now, Newtown has hired another Engineering firm to "peer review" the Kelly/Close work. So, now we have to check of Kelly and Close's work?
Patti Wilson
10:27 am on Friday, August 19, 2011
Newtown Township's Plan:
"Indeed, it must be said that we were left with the impression during these proceedings that the Township had something less than a firm grasp on
what it was committing to even at the time of the Resolution. When Township witnesses were pushed on whether a certain area would be sewered, answers tended to be vague and nonresponsive. (See, e.g., T. 86-88, 181-83, 292-93.) There are errors in flow calculations (T. 91-92, 97-98, 322-24), and commitments of more capacity than the Township may now have or have a reasonable ability to acquire (T. 111, 121-29; Wilson Ex. 75, 76). Without an understanding of these basic matters, there was no meeting of the minds, if you will, and the Township’s purported commitment appears to have been illusory."
"By overturning the Department’s approval of the 2009 Update, we ensure that an invalid and inaccurate plan will not act as a collateral bar to any future challenges. We also prevent an invalid plan from remaining in place during the time it
takes to finalize a new update." Adjudication, Nov. 1, 2010 Bernard A. Labuskes, Jr., Judge
EHB Docket No. 2009-024-L