Standing on the levee in his hometown, Irvona Mayor PJ Patterson, tells us what constantly worries him this time of year.

"The spring runoff," he said.

The spring runoff is when the ice and snow melt, causing rivers and creeks to rise, and homeowners who live near water to worry.

"You can't go anywhere, your afraid if you go somewhere you're going to come home and find your basement flooded," said Irvona resident Amy Rowles.

Rowles and her husband are so used to having a flooded house, that they have two sump pumps just in case.

The town is known to flood, in fact, Mayor Patterson, said that FEMA has ruled at least two blocks of the town a flood plain. Meaning, it's prone to flood.

However, that might change thanks to an $890,000 grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development.

"It will make the residents of Irvona much safer and there will be no worry of flooding," said the mayor.

Weather permitting, starting March 1st, crews will replace the metal pipes underneath the levee with cement pipes, which the mayor says will last forever. That's a big difference in comparison to the pipes currently there. They were put in back in 1960 and have never been replaced, so now they're starting to rust and collapse.

The crew has 210 days to complete the work.