Council eyes measure for water/sewer repairs

The borough will borrow $460,000 to make repairs and upgrades to its water and sewer systems if the council approves the ordinance next month.

By: Scott Morgan
   HIGHTSTOWN — The Borough Council last week unveiled a plan to make some much-needed — and much-talked-about — improvements to the water and sewer works.
   Introduced at last week’s council meeting, the ordinance would appropriate $460,000 (and issue the same amount in bonds) to repair an aging water and sewer system and for preliminary design and engineering for a water tank at Cranbury Station and Wyckoff’s Mill roads.
   Mayor Amy Aughenbaugh said this week that the money was budgeted in the borough’s 2002 operating budget, but could not be activated until that budget was officially adopted.
   The Borough Council adopted its budget at a special meeting July 23.
   The funds, Mayor Aughenbaugh said, would be used for a series of projects that have been in the works for quite some time. The design for the new water tank at Cranbury Station and Wyckoff’s Mill roads is for the planned senior development there, the mayor said. In addition, improvements will be made to the standpipe at Leshin Lane, which needs exterior painting, and to the two steel detention tanks at the water treatment plant, which need interior and exterior sandblasting, as well as ultrasound testing and engineering.
   Also included in the work are phases II and III of the borough’s new well, including drilling, installation and infrastructure, interior concrete coating and exterior painting for the sludge storage tanks.
   The council is expected to vote on the ordinance Sept. 5.