Rep. Mike Kelly shakes hands with project manager Wendy Leslie, left, and speaks with Michele Burd, center, and Marion Township Supervisor Jason McBride after a meeting on the township's new sewage treatment plant at the Marion Township Municipal Building on Wednesday, April 24. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Development around the county continues, and as some projects ramp up, others are winding down.

Such is the case in Marion Township, where about 100 homes and businesses in Boyers soon will be connected to a newly installed sewage system.

In the Thursday edition of the Butler Eagle, staff reporter Eddie Trizzino told us about a visit to the project site by U.S. Rep Mike Kelly, R-16th.

The $4 million tax-funded project is, as Kelly reminded us, what paying taxes is all about.

“Every single penny we’re going to spend here is supplied by taxpayers,” Kelly said. “This is all part of what being an American taxpayer is: reinvesting in our communities that have been underserved for too many years where infrastructure needs to be replaced and improved.”

From the contractors that provide the jobs for the workers who built the new system to the hundreds of people who will benefit from it, the impact of this project will be felt in economic and personal terms.

Such infrastructure improvements generally do not come cheap, and the cost concerns for residents of the township were real and rational.

Diane Carlantonio was worried about how the installation would impact the area financially and disrupt local residents because of construction, but she said her fears have dissipated over the past few months.

But now, she dreads the imminent exodus of the construction workers who recently completed the treatment plant, because they had become close in the months they had been working. Her financial fears have also been curbed thanks to grant funding that has helped pay for the construction and tap in to the system for residents.

“Most of the people in this town, we’re on fixed incomes. When we first heard of it, we’re thinking, ‘Oh man, how are we going to be able to afford this?’” Carlantonio said. “We couldn’t have gotten a better group.”

This may not have been the experience of everyone in the construction zone, but this is progress. Public servants seeing the need to improve the quality of public services for residents and businesses and customers.

And the money that was paid to the workers will go into the communities where they live, increasing the economic impact of every tax dollar spent.

We agree with Carlantonio, and hope to see more such projects coming down the pipeline.

— RJ