SUNBURY— The Sunbury City Council held the first public hearing for their 2017 Community Development Block Grant Monday evening. Part of SEDA-COG’s community development program, the City of Sunbury was allocated just under $273,000.
One of the proposed projects is finishing the Chestnut Street reconstruction, which was allocated $152,000. Additionally, Mayor David Persing talks about the other funding; saying some will go to… “Redevelopment authority, and that’s our blatant move on everything we’ve been so successful with. A couple of small ones in here…lighting of Keithan’s Garden, mountain side safety lighting. The fire department has asked for two things, fire hydrant retro fits, and fire department clean air equipment. And then there’s a project in there about South Sunbury neighborhood safety, and would be used to enforce more code enforcement in that area.”
The city council will make project selections at the next council meeting June 26.
Mayor Persing spoke about how important block grant funding is to a city like Sunbury, “If a block of that money ever got cut out by the federal government, its every community in this country, especially the smaller ones, would never get any projects done. It just won’t help for things you need to have. If you want to keep your community moving and updated, I don’t care if it’s a ball field or paving a road. Whatever it is, you need to have that money infused into your community.”
The final public hearing and application approval is set for August 7. (Sarah Benek)
