Aug 17, 2016 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Greene County commissioners agreed at their agenda meeting Wednesday to consider a motion today to approve the contract for the Community Development Block Grant allocated to the county and the three municipalities eligible for CDBG funding.

The county’s CDBG application, submitted in November, was approved by the state Department of Community and Economic Development, which administers the federal grant program on the state level, county CDBG administrator Crystal Simmons said following the commissioners’ meeting.

Last year was the first year a single application for the county and all CDBG-eligible municipalities was prepared by the county. The three eligible municipalities are Franklin and Cumberland townships and Waynesburg Borough.

The contract the commissioners will consider to approve with DCED lists the grant total at $510,969. Of that, the county’s share is $217,867; Franklin’s share is $107,624; Cumberland’s share is $102,423 and Waynesburg’s share is $83,055.

CDBG money must be used to benefit low- and moderate-income residents. It also can be used to prevent or eliminate blight or for any emergency community development needs. The county’s funding is allocated to projects in municipalities that do not receive their own CDBG entitlement grants.

Though the county now administers the program and submits one application for the county and entitlement municipalities, municipal officials make the decisions on projects to fund in their communities, Simmons said.

The county commissioners and municipal officials earlier decided how the money will be spent.

The county’s grant will be allocated to Greensboro Borough and used to help rehabilitate the Greensboro-Monongahela Township Joint Sewer Authority’s sewage collection system.

Franklin will use its grant for a waterline extension on Orndoff Road. Cumberland will use its allocation to continue the township’s housing rehabilitation program; and Waynesburg will use its money for the borough’s combined sewage separation project.

The county is currently in the process of developing the application for 2016 CDBG funding. Initial public hearings were held in May. The amounts the county and eligible municipalities are expected to receive for this fiscal year are about the same as they were for 2015, Simmons said.

In other business, the commissioners are expected to approve a $3,000 change order on a project now underway to repair the front porch of the courthouse where the stone slabs had become uneven.

Jesse Fiske LLC was hired at $19,400 to replace the sand base beneath the stone slabs with a concrete base. During the excavation it was found that the courthouse columns were sitting on field stone and dirt, county chief clerk Jeff Marshall said.

The change order will cover the costs of constructing a more permanent base beneath the columns.

The commissioners also are expected to approve a $3,000 grant to the Waynesburg VFW Post 4793 to assist the post with its air conditioning system.

In addition, they are expected to approve an agreement with Industrial Appraisals to appraise properties for tax assessment appeals and appoint attorney Dave Pollock as solicitor of the tax claim bureau.