Pottstown Plans For $5.3 Million in Water and Sewer Line Updates Next Year

Plans to go forward with $2.9 million in sewer line replacements in 2014 were approved by the Pottstown Borough Authority during their Tuesday meeting, according to The Mercury.

The sewer line replacements come after plans to go forward with $2.4 million in water line replacements, also in 2014.

“We have to get on top of replacing our underground infrastructure. If we let things go on as they are unchanged, eventually the whole system would collapse,” said Authority Vice Chairman David Renn. 

According to Public Works Director Doug Yerger, the pipes were laid in the early 20th century.

Chairman Tom Carroll said the authority is resisting incurring more debt, and wants to pay for upgrades, repairs and maintenance without having to borrow anything.

“This is my sixth year on the Authority and when I started, we were doing a lot of borrowing and people were saying money way cheap,” said Carroll. “But I kept looking at the interest we were paying and thinking money may be cheap, but not as cheap as not borrowing at all.”