FLORENCE, Pa. - 46th District Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil Township, spoke at Thursday's Hanover Township Supervisors' meeting to address what he called "games" and "childish behavior" involving the Hanover sewage project.
The belaugered project ground to a halt as the supervisors and the Hanover Township Sewer Authority Board continue to disagree over how best to implement it. The sewer authority board wishes to construct a sewage treatment plant in Bavington to treat the sewage from the second phase of the project, which includes businesses and residences in Florence and Bavington, and the board of supervisors wants to see a connector line to the Burgettstown-Smith Township Joint Sewer Authority's treatment plant. Both sides maintain their preferred plan is the most economical and in the best interest of the township.
The supervisors have, in the past year, adopted a resolution of no confidence in the sewer board and asked Board Chair Steve Kladakis to resign, which he didn't do. The supervisors can appoint members to the board, but cannot revoke an appointment. The supervisors also have declined to guarantee millions of dollars in a Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment grant, which the sewer authority members say will endanger millions in grant funding. The project cannot move forward until the funding is guaranteed.
In May, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ordered the supervisors to begin construction of the project as designed, including the Bavington plant, within 90 days. A vote to appeal the decision failed, 2-2, for a lack of a majority. Following that, a special meeting was called, and, at that meeting, the supervisors voted 3-2 to appeal the order.
White said the appeal would be heard before the Environmental Hearing Board, with Township Solicitor Lane Turturice noting it has not yet been scheduled.
"We're talking months, not weeks," said White.
White then spoke about what he said was the politicizing of the issue, accusing "certain (sewer) board members working with and posing as ordinary citizens" of employing "scare tactics" to confuse the issue.
White said noting several meetings had been held to examine the issue, the supervisors and sewer authority board had met with the DEP, both separately and together, and, although the issue had been polarizing, it had not been political.
"I have done my level best to make it non-political," he said.
He acknowledged he was running for re-election, and pointed out that he runs for re-election every two years.
"I wish I didn't have to, but that's the nature of it," he said. "If all this talk about the sewer turns everyone off so badly that I don't get a single vote out of Hanover come November, but we do the right thing, then I am okay with that."
White also implied the issue was being used as a veil for political attacks by his Republican opponent for the House of Representatives seat.
"Mr. (Gregory) Deluca knows where to find me," he said. "If he wants to talk, then we will make that a political event. The reason I have the backs of this board is because what is going on is a bad sewer project."
White said there was no proof taxes would increase if the project wasn't implemented as designed, and added that, should there be additional overruns necessitating further borrowing by the township, that would be financially shaky ground for the township.
"They want them to underwrite millions in debt when this project has fundamental problems," he said. "What happens when we break ground, and First Niagara (Pavilion) leaves town and leaves us 100 taps short? We go back to the bank - we can't have a half-finished project. They had to make a heartwrenching, very difficult decision, and I'm going to support their decision because I said I would."
White said he wanted sewage made available to the township, because it would bring additional development and jobs, but the plan, as designed, was not good for the township. He noted that the grants and low-interest loans associated with the project were extended, with the PENNVEST loan scheduled to be closed in November and no others expiring in 2010. He added that it was better to lose some funding than to design a bad project that would cost the township more in the long run.
He also said that none of the grant funding could be transferred to the Cecil Township sewer project, as had been alleged. He said there was no legal way the money could be moved from one project to the other.
"It may be the single biggest lie I've ever heard in public office and whoever put it out there should be ashamed of themselves," he said, adding he had worked to see both projects get $5 million in H2O grant funding. "They got it on the same exact day."
White then spoke about his involvement in refunding $3,100 of the $6,200 sewage tap-in fee to Cecil Township residents.
"Cecil Township screwed it up royally," he said. "The funding mechanism was not done right. When I tell you that I know what I am talking about, I am not kidding. I lived through the hell that was Cecil Township. I don't want that to happen here."
(Wallace-Minger can be contacted at swallace@pafocus.com)
