HONESDALE, PA — The River Reporter reported two weeks ago that things are changing in Honesdale as local groups like the Greater Honesdale Partnership (GHP) work to secure grant-funding opportunities to improve the borough’s downtown streetscapes.

The trend shows no sign of slowing down, as GHP’s executive director Sandi Levens and vice president Brian Wilken joined the Honesdale Borough Council at its most recent monthly meeting in July to discuss the latest funding opportunities they’re chasing.

Multimodal grant

The main ask of the evening was for the council to agree to act as the applicant for a million-dollar-and-change multimodal transportation grant through the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED).

If awarded, Levens said this money would go toward revamping the northside “gateway” to downtown Honesdale between 12th and 11th Streets. The partnership is already working with Woodland Designs on a large-scale downtown improvement project, and this gateway, Wilken said, is the perfect place to begin.

“It’s a great project for town, and it’s going to make a great improvement especially for the gateway area,” Wilken said. “It’s all new sidewalks, all new light poles and a whole bunch of other items as well… That’s over a million-dollar investment in downtown Honesdale. That’s a lot of concrete, that’s lot of jobs, that’s a lot of people coming to town.”

The grant funding can be put toward a fairly broad range of projects. According to DCED’s website, the funds can be used for “the development, rehabilitation and enhancement of transportation assets to existing communities, streetscape, lighting, sidewalk enhancement, pedestrian safety, connectivity of transportation assets and transit-oriented development.”

Councilor Jim Hamill, who chairs the borough’s economic development committee, said that this project would be one peg in a broader revitalization effort, including Wayne County’s development of a Lackawaxen River trail system beginning at Industrial Point, located just a short walk from the 1200 block. (Read more on that under the next subheading).

“It ties it all together,” Wilken said.

Levens said that if GHP applied for the grant itself, it would need to provide matching funds to the tune of about $350,000. However, if the borough were the applicant, that matching fee would be waived.

The councilors voted unanimously to apply for this grant. Wilken noted there’s no guarantee that they’ll be awarded the money. However, given Honesdale’s recent state designation as a Keystone Communities Main Street and accreditation by Main Street America, he thinks their chances are good.

“When you have those accreditations and designations, you’re looked at in a more favorable light when it comes to grant requests,” he said, “because we have an organization, and a plan, and a system and we did everything we said we were going to do to get to this point.” 

Other grant opportunities

In 2021, GHP received a $50,000 grant to improve the facades of local businesses. After some construction delays due to COVID-19, most of that money has now been used, Levens said. She added that GHP is going to reapply for another $50,000 grant, as an additional eight to 10 businesses are interested in updating their facades.

“With the businesses that we did approve, we’re looking at about $157,000 worth of investment going into Honesdale between the match [grant funding] and what the businesses are putting in,” Levens said. “We’re really happy about that and the momentum… now that COVID has passed and construction is kind of coming back around.”

Levens also updated the council that GHP was expecting proposals for the engineering and design of a sidewalk and bicycle lane on 12th Street, which runs along the Lackawaxen River and connects Church and Main Streets. It would also make 12th Street run one-way. The Commonwealth Finance Authority awarded GHP more than $310,000 in funding earlier this year for the project, which aims to alleviate safety concerns for pedestrians and cyclists, and also connect the Lackawaxen River Trail to Main Street.

Reallocation to stormwater

While it pursues downtown revitalization efforts, the borough is also trying to address the perennial issue of stormwater damage to the downtown infrastructure.

During the finance committee report, councilor and finance chair William McAllister proposed reallocating more than $100,000 from other budgeted fund accounts toward stormwater repairs.

“You can recognize that our need to address stormwater issues is becoming greater and greater,” McAllister said. “We have to try to meet the financial expectations of those particular funds.”

The council’s next public meeting will take place on Monday, August 21 at 6 p.m.