Lansford Borough Council needs more information before forking over $350,000 to the Coaldale-Lansford-Summit Hill Sewer Authority for a stormwater infiltration study.

Council is asking the authority’s engineer, ARRO Engineering, to explain the project which is part of a state-mandated Act 537 sewage facilities plan.

All three municipalities, Lansford, Coaldale and Summit Hill, have been asked to contribute $350,000 as part of a matching federal grant to look for sources of stormwater infiltration into the sewer system.

Summit Hill borough has already agreed to contribute the funds, while Coaldale, like Lansford, pumped the brakes on the request following a discussion at the borough’s meeting earlier this week.

“I think before we’re going to give anybody $350,000, we need to know what are they going to do with it,” council President Bruce Markovich said. “Who are they going to hire with it? What guarantees do we have with it?”

A meeting with representatives of all three boroughs and their solicitors on this project was held recently, according to recently published reports.

Markovich said that he’d like to see something in writing from the authority before handing over such a large amount of money.

Lansford resident Tom Vadyak said that Bob Yurchak, who serves as solicitor in both Lansford and Coaldale, gave a good presentation on the project at neighboring Coaldale’s meeting a night earlier.

“I wish he’d give it again,” Vadyak said, but Yurchak did not until Councilwoman Michele Bartek asked if the solicitor could write a letter asking them to explain the project and need for the funds.

Vadyak pointed out that they already know that three-quarters of the towns have stormwater running into the sewer lines and should put money into the plant instead, not looking for sewer line infiltration.

Markovich said that the project would be looking for broken and separate sewer lines causing infiltration into the system, not drainpipes hooked into sewer lines.

Vadyak expressed concern that if the communities didn’t move forward on upgrading the sewage treatment plant, which cannot handle the current flow, that the state will take over — a move that could be costly for homeowners, he said.

The borough is also under a deadline to agree to move forward with this project to camera the lines to look for infiltration, he said.

The end of November deadline imposed by the authority is not a drop-dead deadline, Yurchak said.

“They want a commitment on the $350,000 by the end of November,” the solicitor explained. “The sooner they get the commitment, as soon as they can start working on bidding it out.”

This project is designed to save a $2.5 million federal grant that was received during the COVID years, and it must be spent in full by the end of September 2026, Yurchak said.

“They can’t cut any checks after Sept. 30 of next year, so it’s got to be actually fully spent,” he said.

Council members pointed out that they had this grant for five years and now want to move on it — giving the borough’s only two weeks to decide.

“We can’t turn the clock back,” Yurchak said. “We have to deal with it as it currently today. Whether they had five years ago or not, whatever the reason they sat on, it’s irrelevant at this point. You got to move forward.”

Council members briefly discussed increasing the sewage transmission fee to help fund this and future projects that will be needed.

Councilman George Gilbert said they’ve lost $185,000 in revenue since lowering the fee three years ago. The sewage transmission fee dropped from $90 to $60.

Yurchak then explained that the $350,000 that the authority is seeking from each of the three boroughs is only to save the $2.5 million grant. The authority also needs another $350,000 toward the Act 537 plan that is being updated, he said.

“So, we need $700,000?” Councilman Jack Soberick asked.

Yurchak said the second $350,000 isn’t needed all at once, and can be paid over time. Also, some of the camera line work they want to do with the saved $2.5 million grant can be rolled over into the Act 537 plan, he said.

Council will be asking ARRO Engineering, which is also the engineer for the borough and Summit Hill, to come to its Dec. 2 workshop meeting to explain the project.

The next opportunity for council to take action on the $350,000 request from the authority, outside of a special meeting, would be Dec. 10.