Export misses out on federal street-repair grant, will try for next year

Export officials will apply for annual federal grants to repair streets in 2019, having been unable to obtain funding this year after uncooperative residents prevented the borough from meeting the application requirements.

To qualify for Community Development Block Grant funding in 2018, borough officials needed to obtain income surveys from at least 80 percent of residents on the five streets where work was to take place.

Federal officials track those figures to determine the number of projects serving low- to moderate-income residents.

With many citing privacy concerns, even when given the option to simply fill out the form and mail it rather than hand it to a borough official, residents on only one of the proposed streets — Calisti Drive — met the survey threshold.

Calisti will be added to next year’s list of targeted streets, which includes Lincoln, Henry and Tyler avenues and Van Buren and Harding streets.

Council voted 6-0 to submit the application information. Councilman Ed Persin was not present.

“There’s no guarantee (that we’ll get the grant), but we need to get (the application) done,” council President Barry Delissio said.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, pvarine@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MurrysvilleStar.