The Bradford City Water Authority approved a resolution at
Tuesday morning’s regular meeting, giving executive director Kim
Benjamin permission to look into securing up to a $5 million for
ongoing and upcoming projects.

After discussing the status of the current Marilla Dam
rehabilitation project, a task that will run the Authority about $3
million, Benjamin pointed out that another ongoing project, the
installation of a new centrifuge system at the water treatment
plant, could cost another $1 to $1.5 million.

Ultra-violet light treatment, a method the authority hopes to
incorporate at the plant, could run another $500,000, he said.

“Also on our wish list,” Benjamin said, is a project involving
the relocation and upgrading of two underground pump stations on
U.S. Route 219 and Big Shanty Road. He said both stations are about
20 years old, and the added customers south of the City of Bradford
– at Federal Correctional Institution-McKean and the Bradford
Regional Airport – are straining the current system.

Upgrades to those pump stations and moving them above ground
could cost “as much as $1 million,” Benjamin said.

All totaled, the authority is looking to write some sizable
checks in the next couple of years, Benjamin said. That being the
case, he thought it prudent to initiate the preliminary steps to
secure funding in the form of a bond.

Benjamin said securing an insurance bond is “not done overnight”
and will take at least several months of planning. A proposal
detailing all the projects and estimates related to them has to be
formed first.

He added the authority uses a firm out of Pittsburgh that
typically seeks out the best deals for available bond options.

In other business Tuesday, Benjamin showed a short video
detailing progress at both the Marilla Dam on West Washington
Street and repairs at Reservoir #4 on Prospect Street.

The rehabilitation at Marilla is about 25 percent finished,
Benjamin said at the meeting. The use of roller-compacted concrete,
or RCC, makes the job exponentially more complex, time-consuming
and weather-dependent, he explained.

Benjamin said the crews from Bob Cummins Construction Co. have
had to remove boulders as large as a house and break them into
smaller, more easily transported pieces. The video showed the
reconstruction of a new spillway.

Regarding the repairs at Reservoir #4, the work is being done by
employees of the Bradford City Water Authority. In doing so, the
Authority saved about $25,000, according to an estimated cost for
the same work by a contractor.

Benjamin said that one side of the concrete reservoir was
completely drained to allow crews to clean about six inches of
silt, or sediment, from the bottom of the reservoir.

He went on to say the sediment, which is being removed for water
quality maintenance purposes, was not as bas as expected and the
cleaning was done in a day with the help of an employee and new
vacuum-flush pumper truck from the Bradford Sanitary Authority.

In about a week, the other side of the reservoir will be drained
and cleaned in the same fashion. The material that is being removed
from the reservoir will be used, Benjamin said, adding it can
double as excellent topsoil material.