Grants help borough to cut costs

SUSSEX — To help lower its municipal budget, Sussex borough was able to obtain $250,000 and $150,000 in grants, respectively, for road resurfacing projects on Lakeview Terrace and Newton Avenue. Combined with $117,000 the borough has just learned it will receive to pay for new sidewalks on Newton Avenue, the projects will be completed at no cost to borough taxpayers, said Mayor Christian Parrott. Road resurfacing on Newton Avenue should be done by the end of August. The sidewalks there should be completed in the spring of 2010, said Borough Clerk Catherine Gleason. Meanwhile, the Lakeview Terrace roadwork is out to bid and is scheduled to be completed in November, she added. The borough has taken additional steps to reduce overhead. For starters, the council is keeping salaries for all municipal employees flat this year, said Gleason. In addition, the town is applying for a $660,000 loan it plans to combine with $400,000 in state grants to address inflow and infiltration problems that forced it to pay thousands of dollars in penalties to Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority when it surpassed its monthly allotted wastewater volumes. Ongoing efforts by the borough to plug up its inflow and infiltration seepage include recent steps by the town’s Department of Public Works to identify 100 homes where downspouts are illegally connected into the borough’s sewer system. So far, 20 percent of property owners on the list have been notified they must divert downspouts to storm water drainage or elsewhere on their properties. The ongoing improvements, including videotaping problem areas in the sewer system and taking corrective steps, prevented Sussex from exceeding its 464,000-gallon monthly wastewater limit with SCMUA in June despite heavy rainfall during the period, said Parrott.