Oct 5, 2015 2 min read

CARMICHAELS – Cumberland Township officials are trying to decide how to spend the dwindling amount of Community Development Block Grant funding it gets each year to help improve blighted neighborhoods.

A public hearing was held Monday to solicit input for the federal funding program, although no residents spoke during the session immediately following the township supervisors’ agenda meeting.

The township is expected to receive $102,423 in CDBG money this year, which has been decreasing over the past decade, according to township Community Development Administrator Marcia Sonneborn.

Sonneborn said they have heard preliminary feedback from the community suggesting the money be used to repair blighted properties or make park improvements. The annual allotment continues to decrease, Sonneborn said, making it more difficult to fund enough programs.

“I’m hoping next year we’ll have more funding,” Sonneborn said. “When you get it down to around $100,000, it gets harder, but we’re doing the best we can with the funds we have.”

The money must be spent so that 51 percent of its expenditures benefit people with low and moderate incomes.

Township officials decided to spend their 2013 and 2014 allotments to improve nine to 10 houses in Nemacolin that fall under the grant programs guidelines. Work has started on one structure with the rest of the work to continue next year.

The township in the past has also spent the money on park improvements and a generator for the Nemacolin Fire Hall so it could be used as a shelter in the event of an emergency.

What it typically can’t be used for, however, is to raze dilapidated properties.

“It’s become a real pain,” Sonneborn said of requirements needed to demolish an abandoned structure. “You really have to go to the ninth degree to show it’s uninhabitable. It becomes a problem and you quickly expend funds and you still don’t have a demolition.”

Cumberland Township, Waynesburg, Franklin Township and Greene County are the only government agencies that receive CDBG money because their populations are larger than 4,000 people.

Another hearing on the subject will be held later this month for residents to offer feedback on the township’s selections for the CDBG application. After that, an application will be filed in November through the county, which is a change from previous years, and the request will be finalized in December.