MAHANOY CITY - Residents in the Mahanoy Township village of Park Place are urged to fill-in the income survey packets in order to receive grant funds for a stormwater drainage project.
Alfred Benesch & Co. project manager James J. Rhoades Jr. made the request during Thursday's meeting of the Mahanoy Township Board of Supervisors.
"We prepared the income survey packets as required by the county and I know you're distributing them," said Rhoades, adding in his report that a status update to Schuylkill County grant writer Gary Bender.
Rhoades also presented a proposal from Benesch for engineering services on the project, which involves replacing drainage culverts along Park Place Road (state Route 1014) at two locations, along with pipes to cross the road.
"We can proceed with the project once the income surveys are done and we get the okay from Gary Bender," Rhoades said. "We want to stress that it is important to complete those surveys in Park Place. The participate rate counts to show that we qualify for the grant."
Rhoades said that if many people do not complete and submit the surveys then the township runs the risk of not getting the grant.
The township is applying for a $60,000 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development. If the grant is approved, the county would put the project out for bids.
"We are working on the mailing and distribution of the surveys," Chairwoman Sharon Chiao said. "It's very important that we get at least 51 percent of all surveys back. If we don't get that many surveys back, we risk losing this grant. We do need those stormwater drains replaced in Park Place."
"We have to do this because most of the stormwater piping is bad," Supervisor James Stevens said. "It's collapsing. It's the old metal stuff. We did a similar project in Morea for about $80,000, and we got a grant for that. We're trying to get as much money as we can to do these types of projects because they're all bad."
In another Park Place matter, Rhoades said the field survey for the community park project has been completed and the necessary project paperwork to the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources was ready for the supervisors' approval so the submittal can be made.
"We anticipate receiving approval from DCNR for construction within a week to 10 days," Rhoades said.
The Park Place project will install recreation equipment for children.
According to Chiao, the equipment has been purchased through the COSTARS program and is being stored until the DCNR approval is received, Chiao said some of the labor will be provided by township workers, reducing the cost.
Rhoades also spoke about the need for the township to adopt a floodplain ordinance, which is required with the National Flood Insurance Program.
"We have reviewed the model ordinance from PSATS (Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors) and have provided a copy of our comments to (township) solicitor Eric Lieberman," Rhoades said.
He said once the draft is complete and approved by the supervisors, Benesch will submit it to PSATS and DCED for review. Once the approvals are received, the supervisors can proceed with advertisement and adoption of the ordinance.
"Why do we have to go through all this paperwork when we have only one little floodplain area in the township?" Chiao asked.
"Because the requirement is that everyone (municipality) has to do it in the entire county," Rhoades said, adding any building project in the county will need to be identified as whether or not it is in a floodplain.
"If you don't participate or adopt this ordinance, then you will run into issues with the National Flood Insurance Program and individuals may not be able to get flood insurance," Rhoades said.