Agenda Includes Septic Systems, Cost Of Hook-Ups

By Ken Baumel

MILFORD — Pike County commissioners and municipal leaders from Westfall, Milford Borough and Township, and Matamoras Borough met last week to discuss a newly funded sewer feasibility study.
The study would address ongoing commercial and residential growth in the path of the proposed sewer line in the Route 6/209 corridor and its impacts, according to Westfall Sewer Authority Engineer Mark W. Spatz from HRG (Clarks Summit, PA).
Also attending were representatives from municipal authorities and from Congressman Matt Cartwright and Pennsylvania Senator Lisa Baker's offices.
Westfall's amended Act 537 Sewage Facilities Act plan would serve as the groundwork for the study for the project.
Spatz said that he would oversee the plan. He noted that the plan would estimate the total build-out that would likely take about 10 years.
Westfall's largest sewage facility is its Sewage Treatment Plant, located behind Best Western Inn at Hunt's Landing. The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) regulates water withdrawals and dumping (including sewage effluent) for such plants. DRBC assigned to the plant a maximum effluent release of 375,000 gallons a day.
To accommodate corridor growth, serve companies that require frequent sewage pump-outs, such as large Milford Borough restaurants, and serve residents facing failed septic systems, extending the sewer lines would be cheaper to accomplish now rather than starting 10 or 20 years down the road, according to Spatz.
DEP Concerned About
Septic Systems
Spatz noted that one complication that the study would address is the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) policy of categorizing in-ground cesspools as Suspected Failed Systems. The study would determine if DEP would require owners of such systems [mostly in the two boroughs] to hook up to the extended lines.
Spatz said that if owners could prove their cesspool is viable, DEP would likely accept the findings. He said, "The municipal sewage enforcement officers would know which systems are failing and which are still viable."
Milford Borough Authority Solicitor Tony Waldron said that DRBC and DEP concerns about the plan might be the number of failed or failing cesspools. DRBC is committed to preventing additional pollution into the Delaware River.
Matamoras Borough Councilman Dee Losee said that since half of Matamoras Borough properties have cesspools, he would not likely support Matamoras being part of the extended line due to the potential high cost hook-up cost for residential properties.
Council President Joe Sain said that Matamoras Borough would vote on participating in the study at this week's regular meeting.
Regarding Milford Borough, Pike County Planner Mike Mrozinski said in an interview on Monday that the lines into Milford Borough would most likely serve only the two main commercial corridors (Broad Street and Harford Street) and extend just past the Borough line into Milford Township along Route 6 to Apple Valley. Central sewage should relieve the restaurants now suffering the financial burden of frequent pump-outs and save Milford Borough residents with failing septic systems.....For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.

History Lingers Unvarnished In Beautified Milford Offices

By Jessica Cohen

MILFORD — Despite being 205 years old, having confined many criminals and even held the rope for a hanging, the stone building at 500 Broad St. in Milford looked fresh, clean and cheerful on Saturday. Several borough officials had participated in its transformation from county sheriff's office to borough office, said Milford Borough Councilwoman Adriane Wendell, who provided a casual tour.
When the borough took over the building at the beginning of 2019, said Wendell, "It was kind of cruddy. The paint was peeling. The linoleum floor was kind of nasty. We got rid of the modular office furniture and county computers. The space was open, so the police put up a wall, so doors could be locked between different areas. They replaced the floor too."
The borough could not afford to pay for that work, Wendell said. So the nine-person police staff put in hundreds of hours doing it themselves, according to Police Chief Matt McCormack. In the new configuration, one of the two holding cells became a room of filing cabinets, though the door with bars remained. And those bars, along with the rest of the building's interior, were painted by a company hired by the borough, said Wendell.
New furnishings included office furniture for $300, spotted by Borough Council President Frank Tarquinio at a computer store that was going out of business on East Harford Street. Other furniture came from the old office. Councilwoman Annette Haar then did some interior decorating with help from local experts.
"Most of the furniture was salvaged from the old borough office and refinished or painted to give it a cleaner, more modern look," she said. ...For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.

'New' Boro Building Pivotal In Pike's History

By Jessica Cohen

MILFORD — The recent transformation of the 1814 stone building at 500 Broad St. from county sheriff's office to Milford Borough office prompted County Commissioner Chair Matt Osterberg to review the structure's place in county history.
"That building was the reason Milford became the county seat," he said.
The county was founded in 1814, on March 8, and at that time three towns were vying to be the county seat: Milford, Blooming Grove and Dingmans Ferry, he said. But residents of what was then Milford Township raised the money to build what became the jail and courthouse.
"It was built to be a courthouse, but it also housed the jail," he said.
The jail stood on one side of the public square at High and Broad Streets, Osterberg said. Nearby, fields likely grew where Biddis Park, the courthouse, and the soldier's monument are now. In the 1800's, a resolution was passed to prohibit people from allowing their animals to graze there.
"An early picture of the courthouse shows a fence in front of it, likely for that reason," he said.
The building remained a jail when a courthouse was built in 1852 on what is now the courthouse lawn. Twenty years later, when Blooming Grove again vied to become the county seat, Milford residents raised $1,500 to buy the land the courthouse now occupies, Osterberg said. But 500 Broad Street remained a jail.
"It was the oldest operating jail in the Commonwealth until 1994, when the county jail was built in Blooming Grove," said Osterberg. "A warden lived there to care for the prisoners until 1975. Harry Geiger was the last warden who lived in the jail. He lived upstairs. It was a rural county. You couldn't leave prisoners there by themselves."
He notes that in 1980, the county population was only 18,271, and in 1970, 11,818, an increase of not quite 9,000 in 150 years, from the 1820 population of 2,894.....For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.