On Tuesday night, Indiana Borough Council heard concerns about the Act 537 plan from former Borough Public Works Director Dave Fairman.
In his statement, Fairman said that the township had entered into a corrective action plan with the Department of Environmental Protection over three years ago due to “numerous complaints from one Indiana Borough resident.” While the issue was resolved, there is still work that needs to be done in the Marsh Run Basin, especially with intake and inflow. Instead, council decided to sign and enact the plan, which he feels will cost the borough a lot of money.
He felt the best solution may be to finish smoke testing in the area, analyze flow reports and make sure that borough residents are not seeing drastic rate increases.
Borough manager Nicole Sipos was glad that Fairman brought the plan up, and said that the public works committee continues to discuss the issue at their monthly meetings.
In other business, Sipos announced that they are looking into bringing goats from Capricious, LLC to handle overgrowth on Vinegar Hill over a two week span. She says that the goats will eat the weeds and vegetation to the nub and then a landscaper will come in to take appropriate action. She said that not only is using the goats a safer and more environmentally friendly method, but also financially sound.
In other business, the council approved events in IRMC Park for the WayMakers group on July 21st from 5:30-9:00 PM and Downtown Indiana on August 24th from 5-7 PM for a meet-and-greet event for the community and IUP. The Northern Appalachian Folk Festival closures were also approved for Friday, September 8th and Saturday, September 9th.
