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Council weighs CDBG timing as solar crosswalk, Hillside Park and pavilion projects progress
Summary
Councilors discussed using Community Development Block Grant funds for three projects — a solar crosswalk concept, Hillside Park improvements and a pavilion project — and asked county staff for cost and timing details before committing unbudgeted borough dollars.
Clarks Summit Borough Council members discussed timing and budgeting for several Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) projects and said they want clearer cost figures before committing borough funds.
Councilors spoke at length about a proposed solar crosswalk project that was on the county’s resolution list and a separate, shovel-ready Hillside Park project that council members said would not require borough engineering costs. One councilor said she preferred spending soon-to-expire CDBG funds on the park project because it would cost the borough nothing out of current operating budgets.
The borough’s staff and council noted the county had provided a resolution for the solar-crosswalk project more quickly than expected; council asked county staffer Joe Rubinsky to attend the next meeting to explain why that project came forward sooner than the pavilion and park projects.
Council members emphasized uncertainty about the borough’s draft budget and said they would not feel comfortable approving a county resolution for the solar crosswalk until they had a clearer sense of the engineering costs and how much the borough would need to budget. One councilor said the borough would pay the county $18,853 for administration on a CDBG project, a line item councilors flagged as part of their decision calculus.
Council members discussed sequencing: several said the most practical approach would be to use expiring funds on the park project now and take up the solar crosswalk and senior-center improvements next year once budget numbers and engineering estimates are available. The council agreed it could pass a resolution for the Hillside Park project first and revisit the solar-crosswalk resolution later, and asked staff to request engineering and cost information from county administrators.
No formal votes on project funding were taken at the meeting; council members asked staff to invite Joe Rubinsky and to obtain cost estimates, project timelines and any required traffic studies before placing resolutions on the agenda.
