Meeting to Address Closing of River Locks

by Nathan Lasher

During a public meeting of the Kittanning Borough Council held Monday evening, Council President Gerald Shuster addressed a recent announcement that has been made by the Federal Government and the Corps of Engineers which may result in the future closing of Allegheny River Locks six, seven, and eight.

“The only time they could be used would be for limited commercial traffic,” said Shuster. “So, recreational boating would be almost totally eliminated from using the lock system on the upper Allegheny River.”

According to Shuster, public boaters and industrialists are planning to meet to discuss the issue tonight at 7:30PM at the Oakmont Yacht Club located at 11 Washington Avenue, Oakmont, PA.

“The Corps of Engineers has done this routinely to us,” said Shuster. “They frighten us with the idea that the upper part of the river is being closed. Unfortunately, John Murtha is no longer around to help save the day. This is one time where it just might happen that we don’t have the use of the lock system.”

Shuster also voiced the need for Council involvement in the issue. During the meeting, he requested authorization to write a letter to PA State Senators and Members of Congress to state how devastating the closure of the locks would be for Kittanning commercially as well as for tourism purposes.

“Anyone who has watched any event that has been sponsored recently by, in particular, Arts on the Allegheny, there are times when there are as many as 250 boats sitting in the water,” said Shuster. “Not all of them come from the pool from lock 6 to lock 7. We have worked to open those locks to allow people from the far south and from the north to come down to make that happen. If that were the case, the river traffic would be negligible on the pool that faces Kittanning Borough. The impact would be just plain devastating.”

Kittanning Borough Fire Marshall Buzz Kline also voiced that the closure of the locks may result in a possible “emergency issue.”

Council passed a motion to provide Shuster with permission to write the letter. Members of the public who are concerned about this issue are encouraged to attend tonight’s meeting at the Oakmont Yacht Club.

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West Kittanning Water Rates to Increase

by Nathan Lasher

During a public meeting of the West Kittanning Borough Council held Tuesday evening, West Kittanning Resident Bob Bower, representing the West Kittanning Municipal Authority, announced that water rates in West Kittanning would be increasing significantly.

“We have received word from our supplier, who is the Kittanning Suburban Joint Water Authority, of a 17% raise,” said Bower.

According to Bower, the Kittanning Suburban Joint Water Authority is planning to raise their rates for supplying water by 12% and their rates for billing by approximately 5%.

“We had a meeting with the Joint Water Authority yesterday to learn more about the 12% increase,” said Bower. “Certainly, the meeting was very productive. There is no question that they are operating on a shoestring budget and that they have depleted their reserves. We have also depleted our reserves over the years. This is the first rate increase in eight years.”

Bower stated that it was recently voted to increase rates in West Kittanning by $5 per month; or $60 per year. The Municipal Authority in West Kittanning was considering an increase of between $4 and $7 per month originally.

“We have depleted anything we had in investments and in our checking,” said Bower. “Our savings is almost non-existent. I think history will tell you that, going back even 20 or 25 years ago, we probably never charged enough for water in the first place, and over the years we’ve always nickel and dimed it with these little rate increases and it was really never enough to cover the expenses as the years have gone by. Everything has increased dramatically, and we have not increased our water rates anything appreciable. We have to raise the rates a minimum of $5 just to clear our head and maybe begin to start another reserve for future replacement costs whether it be vehicles or water lines within the borough.”

As the discussion of the rate increase progressed, Bower stated that the Municipal Authority has been discussing possibly handling billing internally or billing bi-monthly in order to decrease spending.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the Council voted to formally adopt their 2011 budget.

According to Council Member Bernie Bowser Sr., the budget has been advertised accordingly and there are no tax increases included. The budget also shows a 3% pay raise for municipal workers across the board as well as a $1 per hour pay increase for part-time employees.

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