Mars to vote on stormwater projects later this month
MARS — Local architect and former Mars borough councilman Fritz Baehr stood before the current Mars borough council on Monday night, March 4, to propose a set of stormwater-related projects to pursue in the near future.
This is part of a region-wide project to make Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System repairs along Breakneck Creek, as required by federal law.
While Baehr mentioned he had five projects in the pipeline, he prioritized two of them at Monday night’s meeting. One was a “rain garden” — a bowl-shaped depression in the ground which collects rainwater — to be located along Route 8, near the Penn-Mar Plaza retirement home.
“It takes a considerable amount of water from the west, and also from PennDOT catch basins from the new improvement from 228 into Pittsburgh Street,” Baehr said. “There’s more runoff into that area, so we’re going to create a rain garden there.”
The other, located on the opposite side of the borough, would consist of stream bank restoration near the Mars Public Works building on Spring Street.
“There’s currently 130 feet of stream immediately behind the public works building,” Baehr said. “That 130 feet is currently permitted. The borough has gotten that portion permitted. We would like to see if we could get that done this year.
Baehr, who is currently an architecture consultant with FJ Baehr Architects in Cranberry Township, is also on the board of Penn-Mar Plaza, one of the businesses which has been cooperating with the borough on the stormwater management process.
“St. John’s home is cooperating with us, Stick City (Brewing Company), and some groups of property that are in close proximity to the area we want to work on,” said Mars Mayor Gregg Hartung.
Baehr said that he and Hartung were looking to work together on an application for a Growing Greener grant from Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection to help fund all five potential stormwater projects, which would amount to “somewhere in the $300,000 range.” If approved, the grant would require the borough or another party to contribute 15% of the amount, which Baehr estimates to be “approximately $45,000.”
No action was taken on the project on Monday night, as the stormwater topic was only a discussion item. However, Mars borough secretary Bonnie Forsythe expects that the council will vote on the matter at their next meeting March 18.
