By SARA FURLONG

s.furlong@bradfordera.com

Bradford Sanitary Authority at its meeting this week approved connections for two new projects in the area and assisted with several developmental efforts.

A property at 945 South Ave. will be renovated into an apartment complex. Owners requested 12 equivalent dwelling units (EDUs) and engineers determined BSA has the capacity for those.

Foster Township officials approached BSA with a request for one EDU at a commercial warehouse in Lafferty Hollow Industrial Park.

Additionally, engineers contacted BSA regarding the extent of planning that would be required for a 4,000-square-foot addition at The Guidance Center. BSA submitted the inquiry to its engineers, Gannett Fleming.

Lafayette Township officials notified BSA of Pine Acres Golf and RV Resort’s plan to install an individual and community on-lot sewage disposal system.

The authority will partner with the Office of Economic and Community Development (OECD) on its betterment project on North Bennett Street, between West Washington and Barbour streets. The authority will replace a storm main along that section to prevent any new sidewalks or pavement from having to be excavated in the future.

As the city’s Board of Health works to clean up blight, the property at 159 E. Main St. was added to its public nuisance list in November. At its April 8 meeting, city council approved the sale of that property to BSA to be used to access a sanitary main and several manholes running behind nearby houses. The sale will have to be reviewed by the county and school district before being final.

As the weather allows increased outside activities, field crews have resumed asset assessments in subsystem 11, the High Street area, on sanitary sewer mains and associated manholes.

Authority officials also met with logging company representatives regarding a project within city limits, above Petrolia Street, because of stormwater infrastructure in the area. The authority was alerted through the Pennsylvania 811 call system, and notified the McKean County Conservation District to protect the area from excessive runoff. The company’s stormwater management plan was submitted to Gannett Fleming for review.

The authority also made progress toward resolving the difficulties presented by this winter’s sustained freezing temperatures to the plant’s sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The equipment manufacturer has recommended additional actions as well as alternative lubricants and differently threaded stems to better handle a Bradford winter. Sanitary… page A-8 This last winter was longer and harder than most in recent memory — and remains hanging on by a thread — but nicer weather should soon arrive, allowing the authority to use a $950 insurance payment from State Farm to repair the lawn above the plant’s reed beds, off Seaward Avenue. On New Year’s Eve, an 18-year-old man drove through the lawn and became stuck, causing ruts and considerable other damage.

In old business, there have been no further developments regarding the authority’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, and the installation portion of the meter-replacement project remains on track to go out for bid Monday. Also during the meeting, a formal agreement was established, upon recommendation from the authority’s auditors, for the Water and Sanitary authorities to jointly fund the re-metering project. The agreement will go before the Water Authority at its next meeting.

Also during the meeting, Executive Director Steve Disney shared that overall sewer and stormwater delinquency rates decreased slightly during March and that the April safety meeting focused on situational awareness; Bradford City Police Chief Mike Ward and Capt. Ray Douglass conducted a review regarding working in public areas.

Employees Jacob Johnson and Justin Grice are scheduled to take Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) certification exams June 25, for lab supervisor and operator A, general.