Lead Pipe Replacement
A letter (posted below) was provided to residents by the Borough which includes the following quote:
The Borough will replace their portion of the service line from the water main to the curb stop later this year. At that time, with your permission (see below), the Borough will also replace the property owner's portion of the service line at no charge.
The Borough is in the process of preparing contract documents and utilizing the public procurement process to retain a contractor to replace identified lead service lines. Once a contractor has been selected and a date established for the start of construction, you will receive additional notification, which will explain the construction process and what you can expect.
We would imagine the letter must have been reviewed by either the Borough attorney, Mayor Dillon (also an attorney and a voting Board member of the BPW), and the Council, or a combination of them, before sending it out to those residents affected, as it appears the purpose of the letter was to eliminate liability to the Borough if there was damage to a home owner's property.
They should have known that putting this in writing to residents before going to bid could potentially present an issue. In this letter, the Borough agreed to pay for the property owners' portion of the lead pipeline before obtaining a quote for these costs as cited above.
After officially informing residents that the Borough would pay for the lead pipe replacement on their property, they apparently discovered how expensive the project would be and decided to renege on that offer.
Following a copy of the original letter to residents below, is the explanation (via email) provided by the Borough when questioned on why they no longer planned to replace the property owners' portion of the lead pipe service line at no charge.
