Glenn Higbie, who has headed the Hellertown Borough Authority as its administrator for the past decade, will retire Oct. 12.
Outgoing Hellertown Borough Authority Administrator Glenn Higbie stands in the vestibule of the historic Authority building on Durham Street in Hellertown. Above him hangs a photo of Morris Dimmick, who in addition to serving as Hellertown’s Chief Burgess from the mid 1920s to the mid 1940s was also instrumental in the founding of the HBA in 1940. Higbie said Dimmick was a true “visionary” who Hellertonians can thank for the continued quality of their spring-fed public water system.
The HBA is the water and sewer authority for approximately 2,600 households in the borough and nearby parts of Lower Saucon Township.
Higbie told Saucon Source in an interview last week that he has enjoyed working closely with the authority’s well-established board of directors, many of whom have served on it longer than he has been the administrator.
“I truly enjoy working for them and with them,” he said, noting that “teamwork” has been the operative word during his tenure.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with a good team,” Higbie said.
The Borough Authority employs six full-time and two part-time workers, who do everything from helping to maintain the spring-fed reservoirs that supply the borough’s drinking water to handling monthly billing to responding to emergencies.
Higbie said he is leaving the Borough Authority on solid footing, and that much of that stability can be traced all the way back to the organization’s founding in 1940.
Morris Dimmick, who was Hellertown’s Chief Burgess (the equivalent of a modern-day mayor) at the time, had an instrumental role in the authority’s formation and the purchase of hundreds of acres of land in Lower Saucon Township that now comprise its watershed.
The purchase of the land–which includes the site of a former iron ore (hematite) mine off Silver Creek Road–began as far back as the 1920s.
A photograph from the late 1800s displayed at the Hellertown Borough Authority building shows an iron ore mining operation that was located off Silver Creek Road in Lower Saucon Township. Today that mine is a 57-foot deep spring-fed reservoir owned by the authority that holds approximately 14,000,000 gallons of drinking water.
“We’re really fortunate here,” Higbie said. “We have 14 natural springs and we own over 600 acres of property that those springs are on.”
The covered springs are gravity-fed into a central trunk line that transports water to the households that are supplied by the Hellertown Borough Authority’s distribution system.
Before the water reaches your tap, it passes through a sand filtration system and is treated with lime to balance its pH.
Higbie called the final result of that treatment process “very high quality spring water.”
“I don’t know of another public water supply that is set up like ours,” he said.
“Our customers are not at risk of losing service,” he added.
This cross-section of unlined 1936 cast iron water pipe shows extensive tubercular corrosion. The rust nodules (or tubercles) are what causes water to temporarily turn brown or “dirty” when hydrants are flushed.
One of the accomplishments from the past 10 years that he cited is the lining of miles of old cast iron pipe that has become corroded over many decades. The rust from the corrosion is what sometimes causes brown or “dirty” water when hydrant flushing occurs, but with the application of a corrosion inhibitor that no longer is a problem.
Many of the other changes implemented by the Hellertown Borough Authority under Higbie have been technological advancements that have helped to improve efficiency.
For example, he said a cellular monitoring system has helped the HBA detect and diagnose problems faster.
An all-call telephone notification system that alerts customers to outages and other issues related to their water supply was also introduced during Higbie’s time at the helm of the Borough Authority, as were water meters that can be read remotely.
A lined cross-section of an old Hellertown cast iron water pipe is free from the tubercles that can release rust into drinking water whenever there is a disruption in water service.
The changeover to those new meters is ongoing.
The Authority also established a presence on social media, creating a Facebook page Higbie said he is sure the authority’s new administrator, Lauren Sufleta, will help grow.
Sufleta is a civil engineer, holds an MBA and has 17 years of experience working in the water industry, Higbie said.
A Pennsylvania native, Sufleta is returning to her home state from Virginia, and will begin work at the Hellertown Borough Authority this week.
“I’m so happy with what the Hellertown water and sewer system is,” Higbie said. “It will only get better.”