Politics & Government
Emergency Repairs to Cost Easton $300,000
Most of the money will go to making South Side sidewalks wheelchair accessible.
The city will have to bear the cost of nearly $300,000 in unexpected emergency repairs in the coming few months, Mayor Sal Panto announced Tuesday evening at the city council's workshop meeting.
“There are some capital needs in our city that in our minds are emergencies,” he said. “Some of them are emergencies because they're unsafe, some of them are emergencies because they are needing to coordinate with the water authority (repaving project).”
He added, “We have a leaking sanitary sewer line on east Northampton Street.”
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Railing and sidewalk repair along the approach to College Hill on Cattell Street is also a priority, he said.
But the bulk of the cost, about $150,000, comes from the unexpected need to install handicapped ramps at 20 intersections along Lincoln Street in the city's South Side.
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While the agreed to bear the cost of repaving streets following months of replacing aged water lines around the city, state regulations have changed since the agreement was made, Panto said, and state law now requires the ramps if the intersections are to be repaved, which the water authority won't pay for.
Council members Mike Fleck and Jeff Warren said they thought since the change was neither parties fault, the financial burden should be split between the city and the authority 50/50.
Panto said that was actually the case, as the authority had agreed to pay the engineering bill for the additional portion of the project, estimated to be about $150,000.
If chooses not to pay for the ramps, the water authority would repave to only within 35 feet of each of the 20 intersections, as the law calls for if ramps are not installed.
“That doesn't sound like the spirit of the agreement we have with them,” Fleck said.
“It is a $17 million project we never would have undertaken,” Panto said.
He added that the city also got some new gas and other utility lines around the city because service providers were notified of the work and told that the city doesn't want further trenching except in emergencies once the water line project and repaving is complete.
