South Whitehall Director of Public Works Bob Ibach reports the township road crew is nearly caught up with winter damage and is now undertaking some street resurfacing projects.

At the June 17 meeting, commissioners awarded a $598,120 bid to Bracalente Construction and a $207,534 bid to Asphalt Maintenance Solutions for road projects.

Ibach said both contractors were used last year with satisfactory results.

He stated a chip and seal procedure will be used on some streets.

In this method, stone is embedded in tar, then allowed to set for a period. Contractors then return and apply a final seal yielding a surface similar to a pave, explained Ibach.

The board recalled a bad situation with chip and seal occurred in a previous season in Greenawalds.

Residents at that time were faced with a great deal of dust and some oily residue on their properties.

Ibach assured the board that problem will not arise this year.

"This is not like Greenawalds," he said. "That company is no longer in business. When chip and seal is done right, it is not dusty.

"It works well in other municipalities and we're confident it will work here. I feel it is a good application to use in this area near Ridgeview."

Regarding a project nearly completed, Ibach noted a top surface will be applied to Jordan Road in July to finish the road restoration begun some time ago.

Peter Pineda, authority manager, reported public works employees have begun sewer main repairs.

These will continue throughout the summer.

Commissioners asked about the possibility of inaugurating a meter deduct program in which water not going into the sewer could be deducted from the customer's bill.

Residents would rent a meter to record water used for irrigation or other outside uses, thereby avoiding the sewer system.

Pineda was not keen on the idea. He said the meter would have to be calibrated, and expenses of the program would be passed on to customers.

In some cases the costs would be higher than the saving in sewage fees, Pineda said.

No action was taken on the matter.

In other business, commissioners approved color coating of Grandlawn Park, the Vistas and Fernwood Park basketball courts at a cost of $15,520.

The work will be done during the summer and will provide six to eight years additional service on the heavily used courts.