SUS
Q
Vol. 75 No.9 - March 5, 1975
~
Ralph Wi . onyder
R. D. @
Mount Joy, Pa.
Susquehanna Times & The Mount Joy Bulletin
MARIETTA & MOUNT JOY, PA.
Bacteria at work for
Marietta - E. Donegal
It’s not a sewage plant;
it’s a water pollution con-
trol plant; it takes the raw
sewage from the borough of
Marietta and from East
Donegal Township, takesthe
pollutants out of it - and
turns out pure water which
then flows into the Susque-
hanna River.
Working all the time
It’s something we just
take for granted, never giv-
ing it a thought. If some-
thing would go wrong with
this plant on the eastern
edge of Marietta, we’d all be
screaming, but as long as it
is working, we don’t even
know where it’s located.
It is working ‘round the
clock. A continuous graph
shows the hundreds of thou-
sands of gallons of raw sew-
age pouring into the plant
at all hours of the day. You
can see on the graph when
people around here get up
Bacteria at work on churning sewage
The control panel
and go to bed, when the
graph peaks, and when they
are sleeping in the dark
morning hours, when the
graph shows a low flat val-
ley.
Quadrillions of bacteria
All day and all night the
plant is working, churning
and pumping air into the
sewage so that billions, trill-
ions and quadrillions of bac-
teria will have oxygen they
need to break down the
solids in the sewage. Over
and over again the solutions
are re-cycled, and the bac-
teria go to work on them.
Finally, in a special com-
partment, the bacteria can-
nibalistically consume them-
selves.
- Pure water is chlorinated
before being released to the
river.
Solids that the bacteria
couldn’t dispose of are
spread on drying beds, to
be hauled away eventually
as useful fertilizer.
The man with major re-
sponsibility for keeping this
most necessary plant work-
at all times is John L. Park-
er, Jr., superintendant, also
president of the borough
Council and constable of
Marietta.
Inter-municipal cooperation
John works under the
supervision of the Donegal
Sewer Authority; Chairman,
Lew Sperla; Vice-Chairman,
Albert Huck; Secretary-Trea-
surer, Dr. Michael Gratch;
Assistant Secretary and As-
sistant Treasurer, Ralph Mil-
ler.
The Joint Sewer Author-
ity is a prime example of
inter-municipal cooperation
within our area, to provide
essential service to the en-
tire community across politi-
cal boundaries.
What would happen if
this essential service would
stop functioning.
Flood of ‘72.
Well, one time it did stop
functioning - during the fam-
ous Agnes Flood of ‘72.
While the Agnes rains
were still falling hard at 2
a.m. Thursday morning,
John Parker got a telephone
call from Police Chief Jim
Millar informing him that
water was seeping out of the
manholes on Front Street.
John got out of bed, got
dressed, and went out to
investigate the sewers.
He didn’t know it then,
but he was not going to re-
turn to his bed for a week,
and he was not going to get
any sleep for six days.
On Friday afternoon he
waded into the plant in wa-
ter up to his knees. After
working at the plant and
checking conditions for a
couple hours, the water ris-
ing all the time, he threw
the main switch on the
plant, stopping all opera-
tions.
When he waded out the
water was over his waist.
Next day he came in by
boat with some help, and
docked his boat at the ce-
ment platform around the
control room. In two days
he and his helpers removed
the heavy motors that run
the pumps and took them
into Lancaster to be dried
(Continued on page 7)
Carmany br idge SHOWS
UEHANNA BULLETIN
Ten Cents
East Donegal economy
In its last few issues, the
Susquehanna Bulletin has
been running articles on vari-
ous local public officials,
getting their views on com-
munity problems and oppor-
tunities.
The Bulletin has talked to
both Lloyd Fuhrman and
Jim Johnstin, supervisors of
East Donegal Township (we
haven’t gotten around yet
to Abe Groff, the other su-
pervisor).
Both Fuhrman and John-
stin were reluctant to have
personal articles written a-
bout themselves, and as they
said, ‘“‘get their pictures in
the paper.”
So, the Bulletin decided
to write a little about the
work of these two men, in-
stead of about themselves.
As an example of their
work we chose the bridge
on Carmany Road over the
eastern tributary of Done-
gal Creek.
This is a bridge that
Lloyd and Jim themselves
erected some seven or eight
years ago with the help of’
one other man. They had
received a bid for the bridge
of $31,000 from an outside
contractor.
Lloyd and Jim decided
that was too much. They
went to work on the bridge
themselves. They bought
steel beams and pipes, etc.
for their bridge at junkyards.
They mixed the concrete
themselves.
The entire cost of the
bridge and of the mile and a
half stretch of road was less
widow of the late Dr. J. N.
then the $31,000 the con-
tractor had wanted for the
bridge alone.
Carmany Road bridge is
typical of the economizing
and saving the taxpayer’s
dollars that Lloyd Fuhrman,
and Jim Johnstin have striv-
ed for. A great many of
The paintings of Mrs.
Vera Newcomer of Mount
Joy, are being displayed for
the next several weeks at
Norlanco Family Health
Center off Route 230 be-
tween Mount Joy and Eli-
zabethtown.
Also on display are paint-
ings of the late Harry M.
Book, which are owned by
Mrs. Newcomer.
Mrs. Newcomer, the
the road-building iobs that
used to be farmed out at
high prices to outside con-
tractors, are now being carr-
ied out directly by the town-
ship government, with tre-
mendous savings in cost, and
with the knowledge that a
job has been done right.
Vera Newcomer's art
on display at Norlanco
Newcomer of Mount Joy,
is a registered nurse who
took up painting as a hobby
after she had been married
and had a son, Lee. Lee,
who teaches industrial arts
at Lower Merion Junior
High School in Ardmore
and who has taught at the
University of Maryland, is
her “most severe critic,”
Mrs. Newcomer says.
(continued on page 2)