Honesdale gets $5.4 million

By JEFFREY SIDLE 
Posted 5/16/23

HONESDALE, PA — U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) visited Wayne County on May 8 and announced that $5,425,550 from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) will be used to fund two projects …

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Honesdale gets $5.4 million

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HONESDALE, PA — U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) visited Wayne County on May 8 and announced that $5,425,550 from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) will be used to fund two projects that will prevent hazardous sewer leakage and contamination of local waterways, making critical safety upgrades to the sewer systems in Honesdale and Cherry Ridge respectively. The funding is awarded as a $4.16 million grant and a $1.26 million loan. 

“One of the opportunities we have now, which we haven’t had in about 50 or 75 years, is federal money at a level on top of existing federal appropriations,” Casey said. “That is only possible because of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is now bearing fruit all across the country.” 

The funding is part of $1.4 billion, payable over five years, that the IIJA has allocated for Pennsylvania to improve its water infrastructure.

This is particularly important, Casey noted, because the vast majority of Pennsylvania counties are rural. 

“It is critical that we do this, because people of this county, the people of Wayne County and communities like Honesdale and Cherry Ridge deserve to have these investments made,” he said. “They send their tax dollars to Washington year in and year out. Some of those dollars should come back in the form of investments in clean water and in functioning sewer systems.”

Rebecca Hayden, Region IV project specialist for the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST), summed up the role PENNVEST played in making this grant and low-interest loan possible. 

“PENNVEST funds clean-water projects, drinking water, wastewater non-point-source stormwater projects, projects that have an environmental benefit toward clean water for all Pennsylvanians,” she said. “As of today, over the course of PENNVEST’s 33-year existence, there has been $11.2 billion invested in clean water projects here in Pennsylvania. It’s been kind of on an upward arc; I think that we’re probably going to hit close to a billion [dollars] this year, and may in a particular fiscal year... even cross that.”

The pace of investment has been increasing, she said, “and the reason for that is the revolving loan nature of the majority of PENNVEST investments. Mostly, PENNVEST is a low-interest loan funder. As loans are paid off, it increases the amount that we have available for the future. At the same time, PENNVEST investments also support economic development and jobs. So it’s just kind of a win-win cycle. And obviously, this legislation really gave it an additional shot in the arm.”

Jerry Theobald, board chairman of the six-person volunteer-based Central Wayne Regional Authority, gave a brief history of the organization. “The authority was formed in 2008 as a cooperation of Cherry Ridge Township, Texas Township and Honesdale Borough to upgrade the existing plant and take over the facilities. At that time, the sewer plant, built in the 1960s, was operating at near capacity. PENNVEST funded the multimillion-dollar project and the plant was put online in 2011. PENNVEST has also funded the authority [with] 100 percent grant money to help curb controlled sewage overflows into the Lackawaxen River, reducing previous occurrences from 20 to one.”

The numbers are huge, Theobald said, but “a small authority like ours could not do this kind of a project. In this phase, we would have to do it over years and years and years to spend that kind of money in our budgets.” 

Leeward Construction and Pioneer Construction Company, both Honesdale firms, were awarded bids and will be dividing the work. Leeward will replace 10,000 feet of pipe in the Honesdale Crestmont section and all the streets going up, then continue over to the high school. Pioneer is going to take over at that point and do all the rehab furbishing of 21,500 feet of pipe up in the Cherry Ridge part of the system. Construction will start in about a month in the Cherry Ridge section, with the Honesdale section work beginning in the fall. 

The announcement and remarks were made to a gathering of local officials and news media at the Central Wayne Regional Authority’s wastewater treatment plant on Bucks Cove Road, on the banks of the Lackawaxen River in Honesdale. The river’s water is now of high quality.

In a fitting end to the ceremony, as the senator was leaving, two bald eagles landed in trees on the far side of river.

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