Mar 28, 2014 3 min read

CANONSBURG – Nearly two years after Canonsburg and Houston officials defeated a proposal to make their sewer authority an autonomous entity, the two municipalities again are considering a change in management.

A rough proposal to make Canonsburg-Houston Joint Authority independent of both boroughs was revived Thursday at a meeting for local officials to discuss long-overdue upgrades to the sewage-treatment plant. If approved, plant workers would be directly employed by the authority rather than by Canonsburg, and the authority would have the power to float bonds to pay off debt.

The authority currently has $4.2 million in debt, and it needs another $25 million to pay for plant upgrades. The project is more than a year overdue, and construction bids will expire April 27.

“We tried to do the operating authority. The operating authority failed – fell flat on its face,” authority member Steve Lucas said Thursday inside Canonsburg’s municipal hall. “Now, we send out for bids, we’ve got contractors with bids waiting for an award in less than a month from now, and now we’re going back to, ‘Let’s become an operating authority.’ Guys, we’re in the 11th hour here.”

The plant must expand its capacity to comply with the state Department of Environmental Protection’s preliminary effluent limits.

In order to proceed with the project, both Canonsburg and Houston boroughs must agree to extend the authority’s life, which expires in five years. Houston council has refused to vote on the matter, arguing an operating authority should be established before financial issues are considered.

Josh Carroll, Houston’s solicitor, said council members at this time would not approve the authority’s life extension or any financing plan until the authority can operate independently. Carroll said an operating authority would cut costs and save time for both municipalities.

“Just to me, the situation we have now doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, where the authority owns the plant but they can’t manage or run it,” Carroll said.

Canonsburg Council President John Bevec, who also sits on the authority board, referred to the situation as a “stalemate” and said they must reach a middle ground.

After a lengthy discussion, all officials agreed it would be prudent to proceed with the authority’s life extension, while also approving a memorandum of understanding to create a working authority in the near future. Bevec suggested a time frame of 18 months to allow for the transfer of employees from one contract to another, a complication that led to the proposal’s failure two years ago.

Canonsburg Council is tentatively scheduled to vote on the matter at its April 7 meeting, followed by Houston Council that same week.

Financing options for the plant project – including whether the authority or Canonsburg Borough should float the $30 million bond – will be the subject of further discussions.