A Williamsport City Council Vice President had a question about a downtown street for a city engineer that became an explanation in a considerable reimbursement of several hundred thousand dollars to the city.

“The question I have is on William Street,” said Councilman Eric Beiter. About two years ago, the Williamsport Municipal Water Authority tore the street up completely, he noted.

The work was done around the holidays and before Christmas.

He noted how Councilwoman Bonnie Katz, “rightfully so,” made a very strong argument that “we should not be shutting down William Street during a major holiday season for these downtown retailers.”

Katz owns Le Chocolat on Pine Street, which is the next street over, and Katz — because of her stated commitment to the city taxpayers and to the downtown business merchants — often serves as their voice on council. Katz also is a former vice president on council.

The water authority went in, cut up the road surface, and patched the center of it, Beiter said.

“What is the water authority responsible for in repaving?” Beiter asked, before giving a second example. Hollywood Circle, he said, “the authority did the same exact thing, they did some main work up there, and they repaved the whole half of the road that they cut into.”

“So why did they only fill in that 3-foot strip versus the entire half of William Street?” he asked.

“Can we seek any kind of reimbursement for that job?” he asked.

Bill Scott, city engineer, answered him.

“Yes, a few of these streets we are cost-sharing with the water authority, because of the cuts,” Scott said. “It depends how many there are, how many per block or if it is a lengthy one, whether they pay for half and sometimes full width of the street,” he said.

Scott said he has the streets out of the whole list and the authority will reimburse the city for the paving on that out of the contract.

“You are probably looking at around $300,000 or so that they are going to reimburse us for out of this job,” Scott said.

“That was my main concern of what the amount was that they were going to reimburse us for,” Beiter said.