Tyrone Borough held a public hearing on Wednesday for the purpose of receiving citizen’s views and comments on how the borough’s Fiscal Year 2005 Pennsylvania entitlement Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds should be used.
According to a public hearing notice, citizens also had the right to comment on how funds have been used in previous years.
The borough’s finance manager, Phyllis Garhart, said there was one member of the public who did attend the meeting. However, no one offered input as to how the borough’s allocation should be used. Garhart was also present along with Roger Bunnell, the head of Improved Dwellings for Altoona, Inc.
Garhart said she plans to discuss the allocation of funds with the Tyrone’s interim borough manager Sharon Dannaway. She said it will ultimately be left up to borough council to decide what should be included in the borough’s application for the funding which is $127,499 for fiscal 2005.
A second hearing will be held to detail the planned activities and funding levels. That hearing is projected to be held on March 2. Garhart said council would then be projected to take action at its March 14 meeting. The deadline for submitting the application to the Department of Community and Economic Development is April 8.
Garhart said the activities which are submitted for funding must meet certain guidelines for eligibility and fundability.
According to the public hearing notice, the CDBG funds will be used to undertake activities that primarily benefit low and moderate-income persons. Some eligibility activities such as acquisition and rehabilitation could result in the displacement of households through demolition or conversion of housing units. The notice stated, “the borough is responsible for replacement of all low and moderate income housing units demolished or converted due to CDBG activities.”
In addition to taking public comment, Wednesday’s meeting also allowed the borough to detail the types and levels of assistance available to persons displaced by CDBG-funded activities. The nature and type of activities permitted under the CDBG program and its regulations were also discussed.
Some of the possible activities include acquisition and disposition of property, public facilities improvements, housing rehabilitation, new housing construction, code enforcement, historic preservation, clearance/demolition, special economic development, commercial/industrial rehabilitation, public services, handicapped accessibility projects, planning, private utilities improvements, interim assistance, relocation payments and individual development account match.
Specific to displacement of low or moderate-income households, the borough offered details of dealing with such displacements as a result of a national objective for the removal of slums and blight in municipalities which qualify for the entitlement funding.
The borough said as a policy it avoids the demolition or conversion of occupied or vacant habitable properties. However, if displacement does occur, the borough said it would be responsible for the one-to-one replacement of the units as outlined in its Residential Anti-Displacement and Relocation Plan. The borough said such activities would need to be advertised along with the relocation plan prior to demolition or conversion. It would also be responsible for finding similar housing for each displaced low or moderate-income household in the same neighborhood. Such housing would have to remain affordable for 10 years. Relocation would be at the borough’s expense and would have to occur within three years of displacement.
The borough noted the CDBG public comment process also allows for written comments from interested citizens.
