LOCK HAVEN — Lock Haven City Council held another hearing during their regular meeting to afford the public an opportunity to comment and make observations on the recommended budget.

This week, council heard from representatives from the sewer (regarding both water treatment and collection) and the airport.

City Manager Gregory Wilson reminded council that 32 percent of the Sewer Fund’s expenditures are for wages and benefits, 25 percent for obligations and 27 percent for debt.

“The city processes about 2.4 million gallons a day in waste water for not only the city, but also nine other municipalities… We also maintain 36 miles of collection lines and do our own utility billing for sewer which is coupled with water,” said Wilson.

As they did in the last meeting, city staff discussed 2024 accomplishments and objectives for 2025.

Sewer Superintendent Dave Sorgen attended the meeting to speak about completing their biannual inspections in both April and October, as well as the replacement of sewer mains on Spring Street.

Sorgen spoke about meeting nutrient limits, completing inspections and working towards upgrading systems.

The full list of goals and accomplishments for both Sewer Treatment and Sewer Collection can be found on pages 58 and 60 in the budget book.

The airport expenditures are, similarly to the sewer, primarily wages and benefits. 34 percent of the fund’s expenditures are in wages and benefits, 31 percent for operations, 20 percent to obligations and 15 percent to debt.

Doug Wenker, Airport Manager, spoke about the various goings-on of the airport.

Regarding the airport inspection, Wenker has not heard anything from the Bureau of Aviation. He noted the department was short staffed, so he was unsure about the timeline.

“The main thing this year was we finally got the hangar door after a year and a half,” said Wenker, “Tenants of hangar one are very happy with that.”

There are two major projects that are already in process with the BOA: the self-fuel system and the rehabilitation of the access road parking area.

“There are moves to (have) the completion of a fence installation (to) control access to where they come onto the airport grounds. As part of that the Through The Fence (TTF) went June 5 to the Bureau of Aviation. They requested eight detailed responses at the end of October. The city is working on that. One of those is the establishment of the permanent fence with a permanent controlled access through the fence area. That is being paid for 90 percent by the Bureau of Aviation and the engineer is currently in the final stages of designing for that,” said Wilson.

The budget book reads, “The city continues to work with the FAA and BOA on the review of the Through The Fence (TTF) access agreements which were to be put in place in 2004. As an airport sponsor, the city has open projects that will need to be completed prior to any change of ownership and sponsorship of the airport. Those include the rehab of the access road & parking, installation of the self-fuel service system and the installation of a permanent fence providing for controlled access by Through The Fence operators.”

A survey is also going to be conducted on the properties relating to the fence.

Wilson pointed out one of the other major projects is the solar field.

“(It) has not disappeared,” said Wilson, “Like everything, it takes a while. Right now, the civil service company that’s working with Tangent Energy has submitted their land development application to the city planner. That’ll need to go through the planning commission.”

Wilson noted that they are preparing to go for their building permits through the Zoning and Uniform Construction Code office. Steps are also being made towards the electrical hook-ups through PPL.

“The original location that was selected was turned down by the property owner,” said Wilson.

The final budget hearing will be held during Lock Haven City Council’s next regular meeting on Dec. 9, beginning at 7 p.m.