County Grant Funds Projected to Impact South Bethlehem, West Kittanning
Armstrong County Commissioners approved funding for two separate communities.
by Jonathan Weaver
A pair of local communities will split the County’s annual Community Development Block Grant allocation for improvement projects.
After receiving 10 proposals, County Planning and Development leaders suggested county commissioners award part of the nearly $250,000 in funding to South Bethlehem Borough for ADA ramp improvements and the West Kittanning Municipal Authority for water line replacements along Arthur Street and North Crescent Avenue.
Authority Member and Incoming-West Kittanning Councilman (as well as current Commissioner) Bob Bower was glad to see the grant award, which would improve water lines he estimated to be about 70 years old. Other water lines have been replaced with block grant funding in the past.
Planning and Development Assistant Director Carmen Johnson said officials made their recommendations in November before public hearings.
“We try to give out the funds in a manner based on need and number of persons affected,” Johnson said. “Of course, we always have more proposals than we have funding so it makes that job a little more difficult.”
South Bethlehem also received funding in 2014.
“The first phase was for Hamilton Street and then this phase will be for the balance of the town. When we’re done, all the intersections should be handicapped-accessible,” Johnson said.
Proposals were due in September.
Municipalities who did not have their projects chosen will be notified and their proposals could be chosen again in the future after resubmission.
“They can have conversations with me as to why they weren’t funded and, if they needed to make their proposals better, I can give them some input as to what to do to try and improve,” Johnson said.
An application for the block grant funds was approved by county commissioners prior to the December 11th deadline.
Commissioners also adopted a resolution to apply on behalf of Ford City Borough for a $750,000 competitive grant to assist in financing the new water treatment plant.
Councilwoman Vicki Schaub was at the resolution adoption, and appreciated the three commissioners’ support.
Johnson also said “quite a few” letters of support were received advocating for the competitive grant. She added that the county has been “very successful” receiving competitive grants during the past few years.
Johnson also presented proposals for the funding from four local entitlement communities – East Franklin Township, Kiski Township, Manor Township and Kittanning Borough.
All four communities have more than 4,000 local residents and earned between about $82,000 (Kittanning Borough) and nearly$88,000 (Kiski Township) for area-wide improvements.
Kittanning Borough and Manor Township applied to use their funding toward road reconstruction (of Campbell Street and School Street, respectively) whereas Kiski Township hopes to utilize the funds for a multi-year sanitary sewage project and East Franklin Township for housing rehabilitation.
Local News | jweaver December 14, 2015
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