BUTLER TWP — Officials with the Butler Area Sewer Authority and Butler Township are working together to add 10 homes on Dutchtown Road to the sewage system.

Dan Slomers, a BASA project engineer, said Wednesday that about three years ago a resident on Dutchtown Road just north of Township Line Road asked the township for help with a failing septic system.

The township's sewage enforcement officer examined the house and found a failing septic system there as well as at other houses on the stretch of road.

Homes on both sides of a hill on Dutchtown Road are served either by BASA or by the Saxonburg Sewer Authority. But not until recently, when the Sugar Creek housing plan was built and a pump station was installed, could BASA extend its lines to the 10 houses.

Because of the failing septic systems and the sewage enforcement officer's report that the ground is unacceptable for sand mounds or other on-lot sewage systems, BASA must now add those houses to its system.

Slomers said BASA has received bids for the project with two alternative constructions.

One would place the sewage line in the middle of the road, which is what BASA wants to do, for $140,000.

The other is to get right-of-ways for each of the properties and to build in the homeowners' front property lines at a cost of $80,000.

Either way, homeowners are facing a one-time tap-in fee of $3,000, the estimated cost of hiring a private contractor to hook up the houses with the sewage line of $3,000 to $5,000 and a monthly bill of $70 to $100.

Slomers said back in 1997 many of the homeowners threatened to oppose BASA hooking up sewers there.

Based on the 1997 conversations with property owners, Slomers has estimated legal fees for the project of up to $63,000.

But he hopes the property owners will work with the authority instead of against it, which will help lower the cost for the line.

Township Commissioner Joe Hasychak asked BASA members to find ways to lower the costs for the homeowners, but Slomers said there aren't many options for that.

BASA officials, who hope to meet with the homeowners soon, took no action Wednesday on the bids.

In other business, three engineering/architectural firms made presentations to the BASA board on how to renovate space in the BASA office building on Litman Road.

The firms are Burt Hill, EADS, and Ligo Architects.

The board took no action on the presentations.

Also, the board said it is looking for a new solution to the need for emergency access to the Deshon holding tank site because building a second road at an estimated cost of $1 million is too expensive.