Sussex Borough has money to invest in Main Street revitalization

Sussex Borough has over $616,000 to be used for sidewalk replacement and paving for its Main Street revitalization.

The borough engineer, Harold Pellow, said the borough has a $175,000 grant for resurfacing and paving, and grants of $166,200 and $275,000 for sidewalk replacement.

One of the grants has a deadline of June 9, 2022. But Pellow didn’t know if the other grants have deadlines.

“Sometimes you can get extensions,” he said.

Part of the idea is to make the intersection of Main Street and Loomis Avenue safer, and once the cost of the project is determined, decide whether to take the project to Spring Street.

“I think we’re pretty close,” Pellow said. “It wouldn’t take long to figure all that out and see what we can do.”

Two things could hold up the project. The borough is applying for a streetlight grant, but any streetlight work would have to be done before the sidewalk replacement. The borough is also waiting to hear back on a waterline grant, Pellow said. But Mayor Edward Meyer said most of the waterline work is being done away from Main Street.

“I think the thought process was, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Meyer said.

The streetlight plan

Meyer said the council is not sure what the streetlight plan is.

Pellow said he’s guessing the sidewalk and pavers project won’t get done that if the borough doesn’t get the streetlight grant.

“We will have to figure in the unreceived grants because some things come before other things,” he said.

The council sent a JCP&L streetlight catalog to the borough planning board, asking the board to make a selection by the end of March. The panel may discuss that this month.

Councilman Charles Fronheiser said he was concerned about using pavers in conjunction with the new sidewalk because they wouldn’t hold up to being salted in the winter.

“All the concrete sidewalks in Newton on Spring Street, most have been there since 1986,” Pellow said. “They’re concrete, and they’re fine.”

However, pavers are recommended over the waterline that runs beneath the surface. Lifting the pavers is cheaper than breaking and resetting the concrete when fixing the pipe. Pellow said the pavers must be two feet wide because of the conduit beneath them.

“If we put salt-resistant pavers, it would be pretty darn expensive, but it would be smart because it would last,” Councilman Robert Holowach said.

Fronheiser said he is in favor of installing pavers that can resist the salt.