factoryville.org is the official website for the Borough of Factoryville
FACTORYVILLE BOROUGH HALL BUILDING
161 COLLEGE AVENUE
Borough Office Hours
Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 9 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
570-945-7484
January 8, 2010
To the users of the Factoryville and Clinton Sewage Treatment Plant:
We have heard your concerns regarding the recent rate increase of $3.00 per month per equivalent dwelling unit. The expansion that began in 2009 will be completed in early 2010 and rates were increased to afford the expenses related to the operation and expansion including new debt to finance this project. The good news however, is that the Authority has secured approximately $2,800,000 in grant funding to offset our costs. Without this large amount of grant funding, the rate increase would have been significantly higher. Please be assured that no one on the sewer board would raise rates unless there was no other alternative.
Our troubles began in 2007 when the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) required an emergency expense which was nearly $70,000 required to pump sludge out of our lagoon and repair aeration lines. They set a deadline for completion and the promise of a fine if it was not completed promptly. From that initial catastrophic event to date, the aging of the plant coupled with additional restrictions from DEP has resulted in numerous expensive repairs to the existing plant.
By 2007 plans were under way to upgrade the plant primarily to satisfy more stringent requirements from legislation known as the Chesapeake Bay Initiative. The Chesapeake standards have placed greater restrictions on the sewage treatment process and forced the Authority to implement a different treatment process which will go online with our upgrades in March 2010. Since the upgrade was required, the Authority opted to expand the plant so that new users could be added to the system. We met with a non-profit consulting agency which recommended adding users to broaden the base that bears the cost of treatment.
We hear customers concerns about our sewer rates compared to other towns, however, there are two factors to consider. The first is that smaller communities have a smaller base of customers and unfortunately fewer people to bear the cost. And second, most communities with lower user rates have yet to implement the processes required to meet the Chesapeake Bay Initiative. They are mandated to do so in the very near future and will experience much greater percentage increases as they have so much further to go to become compliant. The January 5, 2010 edition of the Scranton Times reported a large rate increase to sewer customers in the City of Scranton and the Borough of Dunmore and the Scranton Sewer Authority blamed state and federal mandates for the increase.
Lastly, we were told numerous times throughout the upgrade process that our rates were “too low” to warrant any kind of assistance from other governmental agencies. We were told that other municipalities had much higher rates and would come first when it came to financial relief. The officials from Factoryville Borough and Clinton Township were not discouraged and applied for grant funding anyway. Our $2,800,000 in grant funding was received from four different sources that we appealed to for assistance. Our “too low” rate to warrant grants was $53.00 per month which was reduced to $43.00 per month as a result of all the grants that we received.
Please call me if you want to discuss this with you in any further detail. Our sewer meetings are on the 2 nd Wednesday of the month at 6:00 p.m. in the Factoryville Borough Hall. You are welcome there anytime. Thank you.
Sincerely, Mary Ellen Buckbee
Factoryville Borough Manager
Authority Treasurer
Factoryville Fire Company
Chicken in the Snow
February 14, 2010
Chicken BBQ
Chicken Halves
$6.00 each
Pre-orders preferred but walk-ins accepted
Call 945-5769 to place your order
Lenten Pizza Sales
Fridays during lent
The Ladies Auxiliary Pizza sales will be Fridays
February 19 & 26
March 5, 12, 19, &26
and
April 2, 2010
Sales will be from 3 pm - 6:30 pm
Call the firehouse at 945-5769 to place your order.
Christy Mathewson Days were August 7th and 8th, 2009
Thanks to everyone that made this years events such a great success! For a list of the BIG 6K race results and more information about this yearly celebration of our hometown hero please visit:
Christy Mathewson Days Information Page
For information about the new Open Records Act in Pennsylvania please visit our page about Open Records Information: Open Records Information
Christy Mathewson Park, Factoryville, Pennsylvania
located behind the Lackawanna Trail Elementary Center
For more information about borough events visit:
||
Upcoming events
|| Christy Mathewson Days
|| Factoryville News
Garden at Post Office on College Avenue. Planted as part of The College Avenue Streetscape Project.
Other interesting pages to visit
within factoryville.org include:
Any questions regarding upcoming projects occuring or recently completed projects in Factoryville contact the administrative coordinator at 945-1014. Our municipality is very interested in helping businesses grow and expand. Please contact us if we can help your business establish itself in our borough or if we can try to help you expand your business.
Lackawanna Trail Elementary Center, College Avenue, Factoryville
Click here to visit the Lackawanna Trail websites
Other interesting links in our site:
|| Borough Infomation
|| Open Records Information
|| Contact Us
|| Factoryville Women's Civic League
This site last updated: February 8, 2010