Vandergrift gets money to pave second choice roads

Tom Yerace
Tuesday, June 5, 2018 4:06 p.m. | Tuesday, June 5, 2018 4:06 p.m.

Jack Fordyce | Tribune-Review

Details

Roads slated for paving

Providing bids come in under the grant amount, here is the list of streets that will be paved in Vandergrift this year:

• Hawthorne Street from Walnut Street to 28th Street

• 34th Street from Bryant Street to 29th Street

• 29th Street from Howell Street to Wallace Street

• 27th Street from Hancock Avenue to Longfellow Street

• 26th Street from Hawthorne Street to Wallace Street

• Bryant Street from Hancock Avenue to Poe Street

• 29th Street from Wallace Street to Hancock Avenue

• Poe Street from Bryant Street to Holmes Street

• 38th Street from Longfellow Street Ext. to Longfellow Street Ext.

• Whittier Street from Wallace Street to Howell Street

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Vandergrift is getting money to pave streets, but not the ones borough officials listed as top priorities.

The borough was notified by the Westmoreland County Planning Department that it has been included in the 2018 Community Development Block Grant Program and will receive $197,500 for paving.

When the borough applied for the federal funds, it listed 16 streets as first priorities. But none of those was approved under the grant.

Instead, the county planning department approved nine streets on a “second priority” list borough officials submitted.

That did not sit well with Councilman Vern Sciullo, streets committee chairman.

“They told us we can use it anywhere we want. Now they send us a list of streets where we have to use it,” Sciullo said. “That's what I don't like.”

After discussing the matter, council voted unanimously to accept the CDBG money.

Jason Rigone, director of the Westmoreland County Planning Department, said the approval of the second-priority streets is actually a case of the county following through on a commitment it made regarding the town's sewer separation project.

“The county had an agreement with borough officials a number of years ago that, if they committed to that process and undertook the burden of doing the sewer separation, we could help with the street restoration,” Rigone said.

Borough Manager Steve DelleDonne said all of the streets on the second-priority list were affected by the sewer separation project. But, he said, a number of streets in that area had already been done with the financial help promised by the county.

He said the streets in the lower portion of the borough around the downtown area are more in need of attention.

“They're in such bad shape,” he said.

“We asked why we can't change it, and they said, ‘It's kind of late to change it,' ” DelleDonne said.

He said borough officials were told that changing the streets the money would pay for would involve delays that probably would prevent the work from being done this year.

“And the money may not be there next year,” DelleDonne said.

“You either use it or lose it,” Councilwoman Christine Wilson said.

She added that county officials told her the borough could resubmit the first-priority list for funding next year.

Rigone said there are no guarantees. He said more than 60 municipalities participate in the county's CDBG program and submit applications to fund projects.

For 2018, he said the county received applications for projects totaling $6.8 million but could fund only $2.5 million. That despite an 8 percent increase in the program's allocation, which Rigone said was the first increase in about 10 years.

Tom Yerace is a freelance writer.