Construction is expected to begin soon on a $2.6 million upgrade to the Cranberry Township water filtration treatment plant near the Cranberry Mall.
“Right now that plant can do 3.5 million gallons a day. The new system will do seven million gallons a day,” township manager Eric Heil said at Thursday’s township supervisors meeting.
Heil added that “our plants are aging and we are making frequent repairs to them. We do experience some down time. Hopefully, the upgrade to the plant will overtake both of the two existing plants and their aging nature.”
“We will keep our connection with Oil City to meet our needs,” said Heil. “We think that redundancy is critical but we hope the new plant will reduce our need to draw water from the city.”
The township was notified last year it had been awarded a $2,636,675 loan from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) for the work.
In other business at Thursday’s supervisors meeting, Heil said he received a second quote for bridge steel for the Meadow Church Road project.
“I have received three different options for the Meadow Church project,” said Heil. “A culvert approach would have wing walls and replace the current superstructure. I have rough pricing for all three methods. We are waiting for the CDBG money. It looks like it did qualify for that. We were waiting for that contract before we can begin. Once we get that contract we can start getting materials and put the bridge in.”
The supervisors discussed a conditional use for a proposed four-acre junkyard in the township. The township will review the ordinance and respond to the owner of the property.
The supervisors will conduct a public hearing for the use of 2023 Community Development Block Grant funds at 6:45 p.m. June 22.
And a second public hearing regarding the proposed confinement of fowl ordinance will be held at 7 p.m. during the regular supervisors meeting. The supervisors will then vote on the adoption of the fowl ordinance.
The proposed ordinance was finalized in March. The supervisors examined numerous chicken ordinances and most of them defined how many chickens a person could have, coop size and location.
No roosters were permitted in many of the ordinances.
