30-YEAR WAIT
State grant of nearly $1M marks end of long sewer fight
There aren’t too many home improvement projects that take 30 years to complete.
But don’t tell that to Steve Hacker.
Because that’s how long he has been trying to get public sewers run to the 50-or-so homes in his neighborhood on Old Schuylkill Road, Shady Lane and Brown Drive.
“A lot of the houses here are from the 1700s and 1800s,” said Hacker. “And we have clay in the ground less than a foot down, so we have terrible drainage.”
He has appeared before an ever-revolving set of township supervisors since 1993, according to township records, said recently-retired township manager Mary Flagg.
Now, with the awarding of a $926,200 state H2O grant, it looks like the project will finally go forward.
Sewer systems have been a topic of discussion in the township since 1978, and in 2011, the supervisors dissolved the township sewer authority, according to Flagg.
But as more and more development came, developers with dollars to spend made some kind of system more financially feasible.
Ultimately sewers were installed for parts of the township and the plant which had once served the long-closed Pennhurst Hospital was purchased, renovated and expanded to serve as the township’s wastewater treatment plant.
But not on Steve Hacker’s Street.
“I’ve often joked with people that I live a stone’s throw from the sewer plant, but I’m not hooked up to it,” Hacker said recently.
“We watched all these developers come in and get hooked up, but we were constantly overlooked,” said Hacker.
“I’ve argued that when you consider how long some of these properties have been paying taxes, they’re provided the township with much more money over the years than any developer,” Hacker said.
But the answer was always the same.
“There aren’t enough houses there to make it worth the cost.”
Instead, the costs have been borne by the homeowners.
“A real estate agent told me decades ago, that being hooked up to public water and sewer won’t make your house worth more, but not being hooked up will make it worth less,” said Hacker.
“I’ve known neighbors who got killed on the sale price when they sold their house because
of their septic system,” Hacker said. “And God forbid, you get an inspector in there and your system fails, then you have to have holding tanks, and that gets very expensive very fast.”
“The regulations get more strict every year, so you’re in the position of the township, which won’t get sewers to your house, telling you to fix the problem,” he said.
As the systems age and fail, homeowners have to pay more and more frequently to have their tanks pumped out because the soil won’t absorb much of what goes down the drain pipe.
But this Catch-22 odyssey ultimately took an unexpected turn.
It began two years ago when Hacker’s wife Pam ran for state representative against Republican incumbent Tim Hennessey in the 26th House District.
She lost, and Hennessey is now seeking his 14th term against a new Democratic challenger, Paul Friel.
But Pam Hacker’s run for office got her a job working in the legislative office of neighboring state Rep. Joe Ciresi, a Democrat who represents the 146th Dist. While there, she became aware of a state grant program which might finally help get sewers to their longsuffering neighborhood.
So Steve Hacker hit the road one more time.
“I assumed this was our last shot,” said Hacker. As such he pulled out all the stops. He knocked on all the doors of the houses that would be affected; convinced the owners to sign petitions and send letters to legislators.
And he did what any citizen does when they need help with a state issue, he went to his state representative who, in this case, is the person his wife had just recently tried to throw out of office.
But, perhaps to his surprise, Hacker found a willing partner in Hennessey.
“Tim was really helpful, he actually thanked Pam and I for not running a negative campaign. And
Tim really went to bat for us,” Hacker said.
He wasn’t alone in the batting line-up.
“Joe Ciresi helped, even though we’re not in his district. We went to state Sen. Katie Muth, D-44th Dist., and she wrote us a letter. I went to Chester County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone, even though she was leaving, and I knew Marian Moskowitz, who was an incoming commissioner, and I got her to write a letter,” said Hacker.
Also on board and helpful was the township engineer, Pat DiGangi, and Flagg.
“Since I discovered this nearly 17 years ago, we have tried many times and many ways to address this issue and finally, today is the day,” Flagg wrote in an email to MediaNews Group in late August after the grant award was announced.
“Mary has been very helpful and she always told me she wanted to get our street sewered before she retired,” said Hacker.
Flagg, whose last official day on the job was Sept. 11, made it under the wire in keeping that promise.
The total cost for the project is estimated at $2,778,610 and the grant will cover about a third, according to Flagg.
Hacker is still a little incredulous after waiting so long.
“When COVID-19 hit, I thought we’d have no shot,” he said.