PORT ALLEGANY — Port Allegany Borough Council members expressed concern Monday night regarding an engineering proposal from the state to build a flood control levee along the Allegheny River.
Documents presented to council indicate the borough’s costs for the project could be around $2.4 million, not including right-of-way or land acquisitions, and not including more than $30,000 per year to be put into an escrow for the maintenance of the levee.
Councilman Dave Fair did some quick figures. “At the very least, the payments on that kind of debt would be over $10,000 a month.”
“That’s a lot of money.” said council president Andrew Johnson.
Borough Manager Bob Veilleux explained the $2.4 million is just the borough’s responsibility of the project;  around 10 percent of the total cost.
“No matter how you cut it, $2 million, is $2 million dollars,” said Johnson.
“It scares me,” said Councilwoman Judy Taylor.
As council continued to discuss the matter, Veilleux explained that some of the costs could be deferred by grant money. Explaining the borough has been assured $100,000 in state Department of Community and Economic Development money, and an additional $200,000 in other grants. He explained they have applied for Act 13 grant funding twice from the state, and this last application, he has yet to hear back from.

“I think that has to do with this state budget fiasco,” said Veilleux. “I doubt that they have even looked at these applications yet.”

Fair asked, “Do we have to do this? Does the benefit outweigh the cost?”
Veilleux explained they have heard that one of Port Allegany’s factories plans to expand in the location along the river — possibly putting in warehouses, and that flood protection may influence that decision.
He also explained that a previous incarnation of the board had decided to consider the possibility of the flood control project, and the state put forth the engineering fees to draft the proposal. Backing out now may mean the borough might incur some expenses for the engineering costs.
Jeff Garrigan, a representative for the borough’s engineering firm, Uni-Tech Consulting Engineers, told Veilleux, “we should really get together to talk about this. There are a lot of grants available. Particularly those that want to protect industry and businesses, or that would help create jobs. I think we might find some additional funding sources.”
He also asked if the borough had considered some kind of flood protection cost to be charged to borough residents.
“That is a possible option,” said Veilleux. “In Bradford, they are considering a stormwater management fee to help cover costs.”
“It’s a bit of a trade-off, because if there were some kind of fee, they wouldn’t have to pay for flood insurance,” said Johnson.
Johnson also remarked, “This whole thing is a bit of a catch-22. On one hand, we don’t want to think about paying for a project like this. On the other, we don’t want to think about what happens if we don’t do it, and something happens.”
The borough will schedule a meeting in the near future with Aecom Technical Services to go over the details of the proposal, so they can get a better idea of what is involved in the potential project.