Required upgrades to the Township’s Brush Creek sewage treatment plant will cost an estimated $48 million, although the exact price won’t be known until construction bids are received later this year. Construction itself isn’t expected to begin before 2016. But the historically low interest rates now in effect for borrowers with good credit, including Cranberry, convinced the Township’s Board of Supervisors to borrow as much of Cranberry’s $41 million share of the project as possible, to be repaid over the next 20 years, right away. At its June 23 meeting, the Board authorized PNC Capital to immediately float bonds for $32 million of the cost; the remaining $9 million would be raised through another bond issue next year. The logic behind the Township’s split borrowing is that money raised through municipal bond sales is required to be spent within three years, but construction of the plant is expected to extend beyond that time limit. Marshall Township, which is a major customer of the Cranberry treatment plant, will raise its $7 million share of the costs separately. For more information, contact Finance Director Vanessa Gleason at Vanessa.gleason@cranberrytownship.org.