BELLEFONTE — The Centre County Commissioners have chosen which projects will receive funding from the 2023 Community Development Block Grant Program.

The CDBG program is a federal program that is helpful to areas that have low to moderate incomes; which, according to Chairman Mark Higgins, is difficult to identify geographically in Centre County.

Mitzi Gallagher-Long, Project Coordinator for the department of Community Development with SEDA COG, explained this concept in greater detail, “Every person that is benefiting from the project – the totality of everyone being helped – has to come in at least 51% low-moderate income.”

There are some areas of the county that have not been eligible for the program for decades, while others are eligible more often. The Centre County Planning and Community Development tab on their website has both a Low-Moderate Income map and a map showing projects that have been completed through the CDBG over the years.

Both maps can be viewed at centrecountypa.gov/643/Community-Development-Block-Grant-Program

The county’s CDBG tab on their website reads, “The expenditure of CDBG funds must meet one of three primary national objectives: Benefit to Low and Moderate Income (LMI) Families; Elimination of Slum & Blight; or Urgent Threats to Public Safety.”

There were four projects presented to the commissioners, and the idea of partially funding all of them was thrown around for discussion, but it was pointed out by Gallagher-Long that municipalities, “cannot start a project until every year of funding is in hand.”

“If you would give each project $60,000, then none of the projects can move forward. So you’re waiting until at least your second year of funding to start to move a project,” said Gallagher-Long.

One of the projects was over their budget of $285,171 already, and would require a second year of funding to get it off the ground.

There was much discussion during the meeting about specific needs of these municipalities, whether or not they’d been funded in the recent past and other factors. The commissioners whittled down the options and came to a consensus.

With the funds available and the knowledge that it’s recommended to fully fund a project instead of allocate funds equally between all projects, it was decided that these two projects would be the best use of the funds they had:

Haines-Woodward Water Authority (Haines Township, Village of Woodward) Mountain Avenue Waterline Replacement [$215,700] for the Replacement of approximately 700 linear feet of deteriorated, leaking water main along Mountain Ave; replacement and reconnection of water service lines and installation of a fire hydrant along this service line. This area was not included in previous CDBG projects, due to funding constraints. Requesting engineering costs be paid with CDBG funds as well.

Gregg Township Community Center (Gymnasium Phase 2) [$69,471] Partial Grant to Replace heat pumps in gym; replace storage room windows; replace stage floor and stage access (lift); electrical upgrade to gym; replace basketball backboards — they may choose to partially fund the proposed Phase 2 or wait until next year to fully fund this Phase.