Borough Considering CDBG Application for West Fourth Street

A road improvement project on Sixth Street in the borough is on hiatus until proper temperatures come around to pave the roadway.

The borough may also apply for a Community Development Block Grant for road improvements on West Fourth Street between Broad and Walnut streets, according to public works director Jake Ziegler.

Ziegler said new applications are due by April 1.

The motion to approve the application is expected to be before council Wednesday evening.

“Last year, we had a project, and we didn’t qualify for the income level,” he said. “We hit a dead end, unfortunately.”

The CDBG program states that all assisted projects must comply with one of three national objectives for the program: The project principally benefits low- and moderate-income persons, the project eliminates blight and slum, and the activity meets an urgent local need.

The U.S. Census of 2010 low- and moderate-income data is what is used to determine area-wide eligibility for funding under the CDBG program.

A community must have a low- and moderate-income percentage that is 51 percent of higher.

A community with a population of 50.6 percent fitting this criteria would not be eligible to claim the benefit.

Ziegler said the project on Fourth Street would “qualify for sure.”

“Income level is determined by the Census Department. As to what our level is, I’m not sure,” Ziegler said. “On West Fourth Street, as you get closer to Broad, it is near that (low to middle) income level.”

He said the borough is divided into block groups on census maps.

“Main Street would qualify. To get a project on Main is possible because it is used by the whole area,” he said. “They want remote streets that the people who benefit are the people that live there.”

He said the road improvement project on Sixth Street received a CDBG grant last year.

“With Fourth, I think we have the best shot at getting that,” he said.

While borough code calls for residents to pay for and repair curbing and sidewalk, certain projects, such as CDBG projects, have curb and sidewalk repair and replacement written into them.

“Residents (on Fourth) will not be tasked to replace curbs and sidewalks,” he said.