Export may get to pave central parking lot sooner than expected
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Export’s central public parking lot could be paved sooner than expected.
After having to remove the project from a state grant application earlier this summer, Export officials may be able to get it done through a federal-grant-money swap.
Officials intended to use Community Development Block Grant money for a retaining wall on Fillmore Avenue. The cost of the project was more than expected. Export council President Barry Delissio said he received approval to use the CDBG money to pave the parking lot.
The paving work had to be removed from the grant application after state officials said it was not permitted under the grant’s guidelines. That sent borough officials back to the drawing board for ideas to fund the work.
“This seems like it should be a good fit,” Delissio said of bringing the project under the CDBG program, which addresses community needs of infrastructure, public facilities, community centers, housing rehabilitation and more. “It’s helping both the public and the businesses here in Export.”
Council unanimously approved substituting the parking lot for the Fillmore wall.
Delissio said he will submit the current price estimates for the Fillmore project for future CDBG funding, “and hopefully the price doesn’t continue to go up between now and then,” he said. The borough is also preparing 2023 applications for the federal grant program, targeting street work along Madison and Harrison avenues.
The possibility of street work rekindled council’s previous discussion about trying to protect street improvements from being undone by utility work. The borough has had several discussions with the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, attempting to coordinate street and utility work so that one doesn’t negatively impact the other.
“What we don’t want is to fix up a street with grant money, and then six months later have the MAWC come through and tear up part of the brand new street, which is what has happened,” Mayor Joe Zaccagnini said.
Councilman John Nagoda said the borough should update its street opening ordinances to require that streets be restored to their original condition from curb to curb.
CDBG applications are due in September. For more about the program, see HUDexchange.info/programs/cdbg.