County staff request approvals for CDBG payments, housing rehab invoices and SATO administration contracts

At the Sept. 17 work session, Crawford County planning staff asked commissioners to approve multiple Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)‑funded payments and reimbursements, to ratify contractor invoices for housing rehabilitation work, and to authorize intergovernmental cooperation agreements and vendor contracts connected to the county’s SATO administration and website deployment.

Planning staff listed several payment requests tied to CDBG and housing‑repair work: a $23,187.53 payment to Fuller Billing Group for completion of a homeowner rehab, an $1,204.75 CDBG publication invoice to the Amigo Tribune, a $21,400 reimbursement to the Foundation for Sustainable Force for land purchase in Sparta and Bluefield townships under an Act 13 environmental initiative grant, and an $11,411.72 reimbursement to the city of Titusville for code‑enforcement wages charged to CDBG funds. Staff also presented a $12,359.81 invoice to Moody and Associates for professional services on the Cambridge Springs demolition project and a pay application number 1 from O'Cross Paving LLC for $130,000 for the Admire Complex project (paid from the city of Titusville’s FY2023 CDBG funds).

Staff requested two mini‑grant payments: $2,335 to Food for Thought for purchase of food supplies and $15,000 to Crawford Area Transportation Authority for the CATA Go program and senior ride initiatives. Planning staff also requested ratification of several homeowner repair contracts and payments (including Sturdy Boots and Fuller Building Group) that were described as completed work under the whole‑home repair program.

To support county‑level administration of SATO activities, staff requested approval of intergovernmental cooperation agreements with local municipalities (packet listed Conneaut Lake Borough, Conneaut Township, Sadsbury Township and Union Township as participants) to prevent administrative gaps in land subdivision and recording at the local level. Staff also presented vendor contracts to support the county SATO: a not‑to‑exceed $8,000 contract with Civic Vanguard for GIS professional services to support a website deployment; a contingent contract with McDonald, Ilig, Jones & Bridal (legal services) pending solicitor review; and a planning and engineering contract with Michael Baker International, also contingent on solicitor review and both terminating in December 2026 per the packet.

Planning staff asked for ratification of additional payments tied to fairgrounds and road projects, including pay requests to Sootco Corporation and Shields Asphalt Paving, and asked that travel and conference requests for planning staff be ratified. Staff asked commissioners to approve a cooperation agreement with Allegheny College for completion and reporting of activities funded under an ARC grant for local industry training.

Planning staff described most of these items as funded by specific grants or municipal CDBG allocations. They asked the board to ratify the listed payments and approve the intergovernmental agreements and vendor contracts; no formal votes or roll‑call tallies were recorded in the work‑session transcript.