DUBOIS – DuBois City will receive $306,613 this year through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program with the funds to be split between two possible projects.
Pending approval, $253,063 will be utilized for a waterline replacement along West Washington Avenue from South Jared Street to Route 219.
The remaining $55,550 will be utilized for the general administration of the CDBG program. Administrative uses include environmental review, advertising, planning, etc.
CDBG funds are intended to assist low- to moderate-income (LMI) families and individuals. Any area that is less than 50 percent LMI cannot be eligible for CDBG fund use.
Council has also addressed a letter submitted through the city’s webpage contact form in which a resident asked for an e-bike ban on the DuBois Walkway.
The request was made due to unsafe behaviors like speeding, weaving between people and failure to shout out or make use of bells.
Council asked Police Chief Blaine Clark if e-bike traffic could be rerouted to other nearby sidewalks. “The ordinance already dictates them as part of the park,” he said.
Clark’s reference was to an existing ordinance that banned all bicycles from city parks following bicycle-related complaints during past years’ Community Days.
In other words, it was noted that the city already has a ban in place that includes all bicycles, and not just e-bikes, from the DuBois Walkway.
City Mayor Ed Wash asked if they could possibly encourage people using e-bikes to travel along the new Beaver Meadow sidewalk, but Clark indicated that e-bikes are considered motorized vehicles.
Councilmember Shannon Gabriel added that there are still people, sometimes with three and four dogs unleashed, on the walkway. She threatened to start contacting police if it continues.
