WEED AND SEED PROGRAM Sharon plans to kick in share

The state is picking up the bulk of the annual $228,500 cost of the project.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- City council said it will come up with Sharon's $20,863 share of the local match for a state Weed and Seed crime eradication and neighborhood revitalization program operating along the Sharon-Farrell border.
The state, through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), is covering most of the cost, but Sharon and Farrell will have to come up with increasing amounts of the local match as the program continues.
Sharon council members had some concerns about that commitment and asked those running the program to attend Thursday's council meeting to explain.
The cities have no financial commitment for the first year of the program, which ends June 30, said Ronald Errett, executive director of Mercer County Community Action Agency, which serves as grant administrator for the PCCD funds.
Financial distress
PCCD is putting up $171,375 for the first year, and the state is kicking in an additional $45,000 because Farrell is rated by the state as a financially distressed community. The Mercer County district attorney's office is putting in $12,125 to complete the first year's funding, Errett said.
The PCCD grant for the second year drops to $114,250, and the state will kick in $57,125 from the distressed municipalities program. Local organizations will put up $15,400, leaving Sharon and Farrell to come up with $20,863 apiece to complete the funding, Errett said.
The third year will see the PCCD grant drop to $57,125 while the distressed communities money will rise to $85,687 and local agency contributions drop to $7,000. Sharon and Farrell will have to come up with $39,344 each to complete the funding, he said.
Municipal contributions could be reduced in the second and third years as the Weed and Seed program goes after other grant funds to help pay the costs, he said.
Farrell's funding
Farrell has already committed to providing its share of the funding, he said.
Sharon council voted to guarantee at least $20,863 for the second year's funding, but it made no immediate commitment beyond that.