CONNOQUENESSING TWP — Supervisors authorized the township solicitor to draft a resolution pledging to assist the Connoquenessing Township Sewer Authority in paying interest payments on a potential $4 million loan through the Butler County Infrastructure Bank.

The resolution came after Lambert Rosenbaum, vice chairman of the sewer authority, told supervisors that by July the authority plans to apply for the $4 million loan, which would be paid back at a 1.2% interest rate over a four-year period. He said the authority, which is a governmental board independent from the supervisors, would need the township to pay the interest payments on a yearly basis in order to apply for the loan.

He said this option would ultimately be cheaper for township taxpayers than going to a commercial bank, which would likely have a higher interest rate.

According to Rosenbaum, the township could save upward of $180,000 by supporting this plan.

"We’re asking the township to assist us with those payments until we have income," Rosenbaum said. “We won’t have income until the system is built and operational. We’re going to borrow money any way you slice it.”

The money would be used for the design and creation of the sewage system, which is still in the planning stages.

The resolution should appear on the agenda of the next township supervisors’ meeting.

The township has been preparing to install a sewer system to comply with the Department of Environmental Protection Act 537, which requires municipalities to provide public sewer systems.

The supervisors have faced challenges implementing the plan, which at first came in at a cost of $29 million, and was considered invasive by many residents, who have attended meetings to express their dismay at the plan.

Connoquenessing resident Bill Long, who had been appointed temporarily to the sewer authority last year, said more recently that he and other residents have been more cooperative with supervisors and members of the sewer authority.

Supervisor Chairman Terry Steinheiser said at the meeting that getting a sewage system installed in the township is an inevitability.

"It's going to happen — period — point-blank," Steinheiser said. "If we keep stalling, it’s going to do nothing but cost us more money and it’s going to cost the taxpayers more money."

A spokesman for the DEP said in March that the department’s “staff work daily with municipalities, local agencies, authorities, private owners, etc. to ensure the sewage needs of all Pennsylvania residents are met and to prevent or mitigate pollution.”

However, Steinheiser said talks with DEP officials have stalled, leading to further frustration.

“We have not gotten really and truly any response back from the DEP of what’s going on,” he said Wednesday.