Communities question grant process

DAVID HULSE
Posted 1/4/17

HONESDALE, PA — “Folks at the township are looking for funding, and they’re still perplexed as to where to go,” Bill Woodward, chairman of the board of the Pleasant Mount …

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Communities question grant process

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HONESDALE, PA — “Folks at the township are looking for funding, and they’re still perplexed as to where to go,” Bill Woodward, chairman of the board of the Pleasant Mount Community Center, told the Wayne County Commissioners on December 15.

Changes in the state review and approval process for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding have left communities wondering what they are doing wrong.

The Pleasant Mount Community Center’s CDBG application for $25,000 for improvements at the community center was rejected because a Census update said the township was too wealthy.

Waymart Borough Councilwoman Jane Varcoe said the borough’s CDBG request for $16,000 for handicapped accessible parking met a similar end.

They came to the commissioners last week because the county is next step up in the approval chain and the commissioners were scheduled to finalize the county’s application for federal FY 2015 funding.

CDBG grants to benefit low- and middle-income persons are federal money approved for municipal governments through state agencies. The Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) reviews and awards in Pennsylvania.

According to the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) website, the three national objectives for CDBG funding are benefiting low- and moderate-income (LMI) persons, aiding in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight and meeting a need having a particular urgency. The LMI national objective is often referred to as the “primary” national objective because the statute requires that recipients expend 70% of their CDBG funds to benefit LMI persons.

Local officials were confused because in the past, local governments surveyed their own populations for grant eligibility. But a U.S. Census update apparently superseded the local survey this year, finding the incomes of some 69% of Mount Pleasant’s served population exceeded LMI levels.

The commissioners said they had no idea where alternative grant funding for townships might be found, or for the county. “We’ve seen how [grant money has] dwindled down and disappeared,” said Commissioners Chair Brian Smith.

Commissioner Wendell Kay recalled that “25% of our budget used to come from federal revenue sharing. Now it’s gone, and local taxpayers have to pick up the difference.”

Woodward said Pleasant Mount wanted to challenge the census data, but Wayne’s CDBG coordinator Marvin Brotter said the federal rules now allow a local survey only upon authorization from DCED. “You used to just do it,” Brotter added.

But Varcoe said she had spoken to DCED and was told a “local survey doesn’t matter. Only the census. My recommendation is don’t waste time on surveys.”

Saying he didn’t like it, Smith admitted that the county was bound by the rules. The commissioners re-allocated the $41,000 from the two projects to one of only two remaining eligible projects, an elevator project at the county’s Park Street Center.

In other business, the commissioners approved a letter of support favoring Wayne Memorial Hospital’s application for $55 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture funding through its Community Facilities Loan program.

The commissioners also resumed their length-of-service acknowledgement program, offering certificates to six employees. They included MaryAnn Swingle (15 years), Dennis Ford (15 years), Debra Birtel (20 years), Jeanette Greig (20 years), Kevin Bishop (25 years) and Mary VanPatten (30 years).

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