The Borough of Tyrone has been approved by the DCED for low- to moderate- income status which will help the municipality obtain CDBG funds and potentially put it in line for other types of government money.
Mayor Patricia Stoner led the fight to overturn census figures which indicated Tyrone was a moderate- to high- income community.
The task was nothing new to her as she had previously challenged figures from the United States Census in the late 90s.
Dale Fields, grant administrator with the state’s Department of Community Development, explained why he approved the status for the borough after reviewing documentation in Harrisburg on Friday morning.
“They (Tyrone Borough officials) really did a great job with it,” said Fields. “Surveys went out to about 800 residents and the survey was done randomly as required.
“We also request a map which the borough has provided to plot out the above income and below income residents in the community,” said Fields.
“I’m satisfied they’ve done it correctly,” he said. “The borough received the required amount of surveys back and it shows a 54.52 percent low to moderate benefit. “What this means is when an activity benefits the entire borough, they automatically have low to moderate status, which the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) requires.”
The previous survey in 1998 showed 56.7 percent of the borough’s residents were in the low- to moderate-income range.
“Tyrone did a good job with this and it will provide a real benefit to the community,” said Fields. “This means anytime something happens in the central business community, it is automatically fundable since it will be benefit the entire borough.
“Of course, there is a lot going on the central business community in Tyrone,” he continued.
“When you project out the figures there are 2,236 people who are low to moderate and 1,865 people are non-low to moderate income,” said Fields.
Mayor Stoner traveled to Harrisburg with other borough officials to present the information to DCED and reacted to the news after the approval was authorized.
“We are excited to put the borough in position to make better use of its funds,” said Stoner. “We challenged the census and we came out on top on this. “This is a great advantage for the borough and it took a lot of work,” she said.
“We backed up our map with written documentation and we’re grateful the grant administrator saw fit to approve our statistics.”
The mayor highlighted one immediate benefit of the new status by making reference to a long-awaited infrastructure project which needs completed on Washington Avenue.
