GREENVILLE, PA. State offers $600,000 in grant and loan to help ailing borough

State assistance to the borough has now exceeded $1.2 million.
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- The state has come through with an additional $600,000 to help in the borough's financial recovery.
In 2002, the state declared Greenville a financially distressed municipality after it ran up a $1.5 million deficit in an annual budget of only $3 million.
A fiscal investigation showed the borough had improperly tapped money from a bond it had issued to finance recreational and other improvements in the community.
The money was used over several years to pay for normal operating expenses.
The state gave Greenville a $660,000 no-interest loan in 2002 to help it get through that year and 2003.
Announcement made
State Sen. Robert Robbins of Greenville, R-50th, and state Rep. Rod Wilt of Greenville, R-17th, announced Tuesday that the Department of Community and Economic Development has come up with more money to help the borough.
The latest aid comes in the form of a $200,000 grant and a $400,000 no-interest loan for 10 years.
The grant will pay for a 10-year financial recovery plan the borough implemented at the state's insistence.
Spending overseen
The state hired Resource Development & amp; Management Inc. of Pittsburgh to develop that plan, and the company has been overseeing municipal spending since late 2002.
The $400,000 loan will restore some of those spent bond funds.
"It is crucial for the borough and state to work together to get Greenville back on sound financial footing," Robbins said.
Borough officials said they are turning things around.
The municipality ended 2003 with a $76,000 surplus. It had ended 2002 about $400,000 in the red.