Yes and No.  In 2015, the Loysville Village Municipal Authority (LVMA) staff conducted a HUD Low-Moderate Income survey to determine eligibility for a grant through the Perry County Commissioners.  That process was successful and over $100,000 in grant monies were made available to the LVMA to make repairs to the sewer collection system at virtually no cost to the sewer users.  This is a similar but different survey for a different funding agency.  It must be performed by a third-party non-profit entity.  LVMA and their consulting engineer Entech Engineering, Inc. cannot be directly involved.

CLUS stands for the Center for Land Use & Sustainability.  They are part of Shippensburg University and are the third-party entity which has been selected to conduct this survey.  Shippensburg staff, faculty, and students are participating in collecting data for this survey.  For residents who don’t respond to the survey by mail or the internet, you may see them around town canvassing additional residents who have not yet participated in the survey.

The funding agency we are working through for the sewer upgrade projects is PennVEST.  PennVEST judges loan and grant eligibility based on sewer affordability criteria.  These are tied to the local municipality’s Median Household Income (MHI).  For Loysville, the default MHI under consideration is Tyrone Township which historically has been higher than the MHI of Loysville Village residents.  This income survey is a way to show the income levels in Loysville Village are lower, and therefore increases the likelihood of receiving grant funding for the project.

If we do not obtain an 85% response rate from the survey the results are invalid.  This means that we will have to use the default income data for Tyrone Township.  This will decrease our chances for low interest loans and grant funding and increases the likelihood of additional rate increases for users of the LVMA system.

LVMA is currently under a Consent Order & Agreement (CO&A) with the PA Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP).  The CO&A mandates that projects must be completed for the sewer system to remedy ongoing issues with hydraulic overloads and other compliance issues.  LVMA, in conjunction with Tyrone Township, completed sewer planning in 2016.  This is known as Act 537 Sewage Facilities planning.  The Act 537 process is a mechanism for communities to plan for current and future sewage facilities for their communities.  After reviewing many different alternatives, an option was selected that will provide a technically feasible solution at the most cost effective price.  The projects selected include upgrades at the existing treatment plant and replacement of the interceptor, which is the main sewer line running into the plant.  Repairs to the sewer lines are also planned.

Current cost estimates for the projects that have been selected, designed, and submitted to PA DEP for permitting are about $5 million.  These are the projects that were selected and approved by PA DEP as part of the Act 537 process.  How much of the project must be paid for by the users, and how much may be subsidized by grants and low interest loans, will in part be a result of the outcome of this survey.

Repairs to leaking pipes are part of the plan and will minimize the amount of groundwater and stormwater that gets into the LVMA’s sewer system.  The fact of the matter is that the treatment plant itself was constructed in 1978 with an intended operational life of 20-years.  Despite best efforts to make small repairs and keep the plant in nearly the same configuration as the original plant, LVMA is about to enter the 40^th year of this treatment plant operation.  The plant’s age has caught up with it and is at a point of significant disrepair.

The plant upgrade makes best use of the existing assets, reusing tanks, buildings, and other site assets.  In fact, every existing treatment tank at the current plant has been incorporated into the new design.  No additional property will be acquired.  All new parts of the facility fit on the current site.  LVMA is doing everything they can to keep these upgrade costs as low as possible, while recognizing the need to ensure that the new treatment plant will operate efficiently for many years at the lowest operating cost possible.  Equipment selected incorporates automation to help it run more efficiently and cost effectively.