Vote spreads CDBG funding

The planning commission gets $58,000 for passing out the bucks.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MERCER, Pa. -- Disagreement over how to divide $322,477 in Community Development Block Grant funds among requests totaling $855,763 split the county commissioners.
The disagreement centered on whether commissioners should fully fund a few projects, or divide the money so that all applicants got some funds but not enough to carry out their project.
Commissioners Michele Brooks and Olivia Lazor voted to spread the money as widely as possible. Commissioner Brian Beader voted no, saying he feared some of the projects would not be able to go forward without substantial CDBG funding.
Of the $322,000, $58,000 will be paid off the top to the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission for administering the grants.
Amounts
Here is the final list of project awards, with the requested amount in parentheses:
Pymatuning Township (on behalf of Greenville-Reynolds Development Corp.): $130,000 ($300,000) for sanitary sewer upgrades to an area serving Reynolds Development and surrounding areas. The project will serve about 1,100 residential and commercial customers.
Coolspring Township: $71,407 ($194,000) for assistance to low- and moderate-income households on U.S. Route 19 and surrounding streets near Mercer borough in paying for tap-in fees to new sanitary sewer lines.
Mercer Borough: $40,000 ($215,000) for construction of 1,750 feet of storm sewer on West Butler and South Maple streets to relieve flooding.
Liberty Township: $12,000 ($12,253) for construction of sewer line laterals and payment of tap-in fees for three hardship cases.
$1,000 ($5,000) for demolition of an old house which poses a danger to youth.
AWARE Inc.: $5,000 ($16,563) to expand the rural legal advocacy program to serve rural victims of domestic and sexual violence.
Community Counseling Center: $5,000 ($10,000) for an increase in outpatient mental health and substance abuses services to residents in nonentitlement CDBG areas.
After the meeting, Daniel Gracenin, planning commission executive director, said the county's CDBG grant is distributed to projects in nonentitled communities. This means they do not have the population necessary to receive their own grant allotment.
Entitlement communities in Mercer County are Farrell, Sharon, Hermitage, Sharpsville, Greenville, Grove City and Pine Township.