CLEARFIELD – If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
At Thursday’s Clearfield Borough Council meeting, Community Development Specialist Lisa Kovalick reviewed the borough’s 2016 Community Development Block Grant funding.
Kovalick said the borough is eligible for $101,130 in CDBG funds. The grant can be used to fund a variety of projects within the borough to benefit low-to-moderate income residents. The borough was looking to add some of that funding to money it had saved from 2013, 2014, and 2015.
Kovalick said the borough had accumulated a total of $298,000 in CDBG allocations from previous years, for sidewalk and curb improvements on Third Street between Pine and Locust streets.
However, Kovalick said the Department of Community and Economic Development is saying that an income survey would need to be conducted for the borough to determine if enough residents meet the low-to-moderate income requirements.
Kovalick said she has sent a rebuttal to DCED requesting they allow the funding to be used for the project.
“I asked them what directive they were using to deny the project, but they couldn’t give me one. I feel they should have a directive if they’re going to say the project can’t be done,” Kovalick said. She said while there are some businesses in that area, the majority is residents who meet the income requirements.
Kovalick said the borough should get a committee together to discuss additional projects to use the money for in the event the rebuttal is denied.
The deadline for the 2016 CDBG application is Dec. 16 and a second public hearing on the application will be held at 6:30 p.m. Oct 13.