Delmont residents may have to absorb a $2.39 increase from the Franklin Township Municipal Sanitary Authority. For now, however, they do not have to worry about absorbing an additional $7.50 rate hike from the borough.

Council members this week balked at instituting the increase. The money would go toward paying off a $1 million loan from 2013, used to upgrade the Cramer pump station; paying off a $100,000 loan used to buy a grinder for the pump station; and funding the installation of a sewage interceptor line to try and address overflows in the sewage system.

“With the condition that the (sewage) system is in, some work will need to be done,” councilman Stan Cheyne said. “So the question is: do we phase (a rate hike) in, or do we do it all now?”

Borough engineer Kevin Brett said that phasing in the increase means the hike will exceed $7.50 in the end, “because you’ll be catching up from the time when the ($7.50 rate hike) was not in place.”

Instituting the hike all at once, Brett said, would allow the borough to pay off the pump station and grinder loans before they begin work on the interceptor line.

Discussion of a future rate hike will be back on council’s agenda in February.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, pvarine@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MurrysvilleStar.

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