About a dozen households on Derry Township’s Guthrie Road are set to gain municipal water service through a line extension approved by the township supervisors.

Chairman Jim Prohaska said construction likely could begin in about a month after the supervisors on Tuesday awarded a contract totaling about $245,000 to Export-based Kukurin Contracting.

The firm was selected from a field of eight bidders, with costs of the project to be covered through state funding.

“The way the prices came in, we’re going to be able to do it without any township money,” said Prohaska.

Customers along the road, which is located off Route 22 across from Keystone Raceway Park, will be served by the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, he said.

Residents there have been asking for water service for years, Prohaska said.

“It’s going to open up a lot of land for development because there’s already public sewerage there,” he said.

He said plans for the project have been approved by the township’s engineering consultant, Gibson-Thomas.

The supervisors are seeking additional state funding from the Commonwealth Financing Authority, to improve a failing culvert crossing and to replace two township lawn mowers.

The township is applying for a $234,000 grant to update a culvert on Millwood Road.

“It’s an old steel culvert, but it’s rotted out on the bottom,” said Supervisor Don Kepple. “You can feel the road starting to go down.

“It’s an expensive project. That’s why we’re trying to get the grant.”

The supervisors are seeking another grant of a little more than $29,300 to help with the purchase of two new Gravely zero-turn mowers, which would replace existing equipment.

“The motor just blew up on one of them, so we’re down to one now,” Kepple said of the existing mowers.

The township expects to learn sometime next year if the state funding has been approved.

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