Jun 11, 2015 2 min read

CANONSBURG – Canonsburg is once again in good standing with the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

Council members voted at their May meeting to pay back $26,922 for the now-defunct Main Street program.

“The state is due their money and we didn’t want to challenge that,” said Richard Russo, council vice president. “Nothing good would come from not paying the state back.”

The Main Street program, later called Our Town Cooperative, was created to fortify downtown business, including the salary of a Main Street manager charged with promotion and encouraging cosmetic improvements to buildings. It disbanded in 2013 after the resignation of manager Nadeen Steffey.

An audit done to officially close the program revealed discrepancies, leading to a second audit, which is still being completed.

Russo believes some money pledged by area businesses was never collected.

“Certainly, if X, Y, Z bank pledged $3,000, we would go back and ask them to make good on that,” he said.

At the end of the program, $15,000 remained in the account, which was retained by the borough, so it really paid back around $11,000, Russo explained.

The money was repaid by the state’s deadline, thus avoiding potential penalties, interest or spoiling Canonsburg’s relationship with the state department.

“Canonsburg is not the first, nor will it be the last, to have to repay on a close out,” said Bob Kipp, borough manager, in an email. “I would bet that over half of the state’s 2,700 municipalities have had to pay back monies and our amount is relatively small compared to others.”

In other business, council members tabled awarding a contract for the borough’s $1 million road improvement project. Pending engineer and solicitor approval, the board will vote to accept one of the four bids received at a meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.