Paving postponed following SR flood
SLIPPERY ROCK — Road improvement projects are being postponed in the borough due to flooding that occurred as a result of heavy rain Friday night.
The state of emergency declared by borough leaders late Friday is set to continue, according to borough manager Shawn Pugh.
Pugh said damage to borough roads and property has been evaluated by engineers, and that insurance adjusters will look at it in the coming week.
“Engineers have looked at Boller Drive and the hole on Elm Street. On Boller, it’s down to one lane, but you can drive through it to get into the park,” he said. “Insurance needs to see the damage to see what can be covered.”
Pugh added that the paving project scheduled to begin next week on nine borough roads will be postponed.
“It’s now postponed for a couple of weeks, so we can see if things need to be added from storm damage,” he said. “My road crew also hasn’t been able to prep the roads to be done by PennDOT.”
A representative from PennDOT and Steve Bicehouse, director of emergency services in Butler County, also are scheduled to meet this week with borough leaders to assess the added damage.
Pugh urged residents to keep track of property damage costs insurance won’t cover in the event that the borough qualifies for federal funds to put toward the flood’s aftermath.
He said the borough and a municipality in Westmoreland County declared state of emergencies because of the Friday storm conditions and if they calculated $22 million dollars in damage, they qualified for federal funds.
“I don’t think we’re going to be near $22 million,” Pugh said. “We’re asking residents to keep track in the event that we reach out and end up needing it.”
Council also voted to appoint Kurt Reasner to the zoning hearing board for a five-year period and discussed advertising for a vacancy on the borough’s planning commission.
The next borough council workshop meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 6.
