Borough officials and the assembly are on a mission to improve the town’s streets.
It was St. Michaels Street in 2025, with McKinnon Street on this summer’s rebuild schedule. Next up could be Mission Street.
But digging up a street, pulling out the old, deteriorated water and sewer lines, laying in new lines and connections, refilling and then grading and repaving is expensive. The borough is looking at rebuilding Mission Street while a state program that helps pay for new utility lines is still available.
A fund at the Department of Environmental Conservation is nearing the end of its life, Borough Manager Mason Villarma told assembly members during budget meetings last month.
The program is particularly attractive because the principal of the loan is forgivable, leaving the borough to pay back only the low interest rate on the money.
If the borough can get a 100% forgivable state loan to pay for new water and sewer lines underneath Mission Street, the municipality could find a way to pay for the surface work, just like it is doing with the McKinnon Street rebuild this summer, he said.
There is no timeline for the Mission Street project, but borough officials are hopeful.
