Dec 8, 2014 3 min read

CARMICHAELS – Cumberland Township supervisors Monday adopted a township budget that calls for no increase in taxes and approved a Community Development Block Grant application that continues the housing rehabilitation program in Nemacolin for a second year.

The supervisors adopted a 2015 budget of $4,809,391, under which property taxes will remain at 3 mills. The township has not raised taxes in five or six years.

The budget is unchanged from the tentative budget approved last month, supervisor William Groves said.

The various township funds and proposed expenditures are: general fund, $2,452,873; liquid fuels fund, $513,377; new machinery fund, $106,000; Crucible sewage fund, $380,317; street light fund, $75,000; fire hydrant fund, $17,400; and fire protection fund, $36,300.

The township now has $1,228,122 in Act 13 natural gas impact fee money, which includes money from previous years’ disbursements that is held in a capital reserve fund and money earmarked for projects that have not yet been completed.

The township budgeted $400,000 for Act 13 money for 2015. The annual disbursement is based on the number of wells drilled in the municipality during the year. The township received $906,875 in Act 13 money this year and $787,151 last year.

The supervisors also approved a motion adopting the township’s per capita tax, which for the first time exempts residents 65 or older from having to pay the $5 tax.

The supervisors approved the 2014 CDBG application after holding a public hearing on the proposed use of the money.

The township plans to spend the $102,627 it will receive from the program on the housing rehabilitation program in Nemacolin. The township’s 2013 CDBG money also was earmarked for rehabilitating homes in the village.

“The township has been involved in trying to make a difference in Nemacolin,” Marcia Sonneborn, the township’s CDBG coordinator, said.

The township used CDBG money for housing rehabilitation for a number of years. Sonneborn said she currently has 55 applications and of those, 35 are for homes in Nemacolin.

The money must be used on houses that are owner-occupied and whose occupants meet income eligibility guidelines. The basic grant for each house is $20,000, which will allow the township to complete four or five homes with the 2014 allocation.

Sonneborn was asked whether program funds could be used to replace only the roof on a house, for example, to prevent the house from further deterioration and to allow more houses to be done with the available money. She said the program requires all of a house’s deficiencies be addressed and the house be brought up to code.

Township resident Emmett McKenzie said Nemacolin was once a “model community” and it is a shame what has happened to it.

Efforts have begun to try to revitalize the community, Sonneborn said. The township, Nemacolin Inc., Nemacolin Neighbors United, police and others were working to improve the community, she said. “But it’s not going to happen overnight,” she added.

In other business, the supervisors agreed to meet with Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority to discuss which houses in Nemacolin do not have a water tap. When the authority replaced water lines in the community several years ago, apparently houses that did not have water for a certain number of years did not receive a tap.

Sonneborn said the township was not aware until recently that some homes did not have taps.

A Nemacolin resident who raised the issue said she knew someone who wanted to buy a house in the community but then found out it did not have a water tap.