FINDLAY GETS WASTE WATER GRANT FOR UPGRADES

$3 million award will be used to expand system near airport

The Findlay Township Municipal Authority has received a $3 million federal grant for $12 million in waste water treatment facility infrastructure upgrades that will benefit service to existing and planned business parks.

Jason Orsini, municipal authority general manager, said the Economic Development Administration grant will help in the expansion of the township’s “very undersized system” near Potato Garden Run and Strauss roads.

It also will help Findlay industrial parks attract and retain businesses and investments in the community.

The authority is continuing to pursue additional grant opportunities on the state level, said Mr. Orsini, who expects the sewage treatment expansion project to go to bid in early 2016 with a completion timeline of mid-2017.

This expanded system will help servicing office and industrial parks at Westport Woods adjacent to the Findlay Connector and for the future phase two development of the Clinton Commerce Park on Allegheny County Airport Authority land, he said.

“With all this growth, an expansion of the treatment plant has to happen,” Mr. Orsini said. “Without critical utilities these things do not happen.”

As part of a Tax Increment Financing plan for the creation of Clinton Commerce Park Phase II approved by Findlay and West Allegheny School District last month, a $500,000 portion of the TIF will be diverted for use in sewage system upgrades.

“Anything that I can get from a grant or a TIF aids in the amount of money we have to borrow and reflects in your rates,” Mr. Orsini said.

In 2014, EDA gave Findlay a $1.8 million grant for a water infrastructure project.

According to the grant application by the authority, the project will be instrumental in creating 2,420 jobs in manufacturing, research and development, and hospitality, among other sectors, and generate $783 million in investment in the form of new construction.