24 grants totaling $1.44M awarded
By: PETER HALL
Bucks County Courier Times
A slate roof for the entrance of the Morrisville Free Library isn't the kind of project the federal government's Community Development Block Grant program was intended to pay for, the Bucks County commissioners decided.
The commissioners tabled a $35,000 grant for the borough to replace the roof on the entryway of the former church that houses the library at 300 N. Pennsylvania Ave.
Commissioner Jim Cawley said the cost of the project and the size of the roof are not in proportion and wondered whether a substitute for slate could be used to keep down the cost while preserving the building's aesthetic appeal.
"Is that the best and most efficient way to use that money?" Cawley asked.
The Community Development Block Grant program is administered by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide money for programs and improvement to public and nonprofit facilities that serve low- and moderate-income residents.
The commissioners approved 24 CDBG grants totaling $1.44 million to municipalities and nonprofit groups around the county last week.
The library entrance roof, which Cawley estimated to be about 200 square feet, was identified as a project that the borough council wanted to complete using CDBG money, county Community and Business Development Director Vitor Vicente said.
Because Morrisville receives a set amount of money based on the percentage of its population that meets HUD's definition of low or moderate income, the county usually defers to the judgment of borough officials, Vicente said.
Cawley said he wanted to be sure the commissioners were fulfilling their responsibility to be good stewards of the public's money and ensure that the federal grant money benefits as many people as possible.
"I'm not arguing that [Morrisville] should not be receiving CDBG money," Cawley said.
Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia asked whether the commissioners' decision to reject the project would mean a loss in funding for the borough.
"If we were to say, 'Look, Morrisville, we can't rationalize $35,000 for a slate roof, get another kind of roof for $10,000 or $15,000,' they would still get to keep the money for another worthy project?" she asked.
Vicente said the borough could revise the project or present an application for a different project to be funded with its share of the CDBG money.
The commissioners tabled the matter until the July 21 meeting.
Acting Assistant Borough Manager Robert Seward said the borough plans to remove the existing slate and reuse it after making structural repairs to the entryway. He said the cost of the project is inflated by the requirement to pay an engineer to produce drawings before the project begins.
"There's a lot that comes into play when you go out for a bidding process using state or federal money. There are certain mandates that you must follow," he said.
Seward said the borough hoped to minimize the cost by reusing as much of the old slate as possible.
"We are well aware that there are limited funds to go around for all the municipalities," Seward said. "My goal has always been to bring in the project as cheaply as we can."
July 12, 2010 02:11 AM
