Clarks Summit volunteers seek borough sign-off to use CDBG funds for Hillside Park accessibility and senior repairs

Mark Spatz, co-chair of the Abington Area Joint Recreation Board and volunteer civil engineer, told the Clarks Summit Borough Council on Tuesday that work funded through borough-allocated Community Development Block Grant funds recently repaved the Hillside Park community center parking lot and that the park board now seeks the borough’s blessing to pursue a second project to improve handicap accessibility and drainage at the Lakeside Pavilion.

Spatz said the parking-lot paving began the prior Monday and crews finished the paving and striping by the day before the meeting. “They finished the paving part yesterday. They did the striping today,” he said. He described full-depth repairs on several areas where the underlying subgrade required re-compaction and said the contract was awarded through the county’s public-bid process; the county is the contract owner, he said. Spatz showed photographic progress slides during his remarks.

The next project the park submitted to the county would level settled concrete around the blue-roof Lakeside Pavilion, regrade and add drainage tile to address freeze-thaw-related undermining of the slab, and repave pavilion edges to provide smoother handicap access around the building. “We are estimating that this project will cost, most likely, less than $72,000,” Spatz said. He told council the county had forwarded the project to the state and that the park board expected approval but that a state extension request for expiring CDBG allocations remained unresolved.

Spatz said the borough’s CDBG balance includes a tranche of funds the borough holds for park projects that will expire in mid‑February 2026 if not used. He said the borough’s expiring-balance spreadsheet shows $86,415 in one expiring allocation and that the paving project will draw from that account. Spatz urged council to indicate a willingness to allocate expiring funds so volunteers can proceed with engineering and bid preparation before the deadline.

Council members and staff cautioned that, under Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act and municipal procedures, the council could not take a binding vote on an item not on the meeting agenda. Borough solicitor Kevin (role/title provided in transcript as “Kevin”) advised that council could not make a formal, binding allocation during public comment but said council could “gauge the temperature” and place an item on a future agenda. One council member recommended adding the item to the work session and the October council meeting and asking the county to return with its formal resolution so the council would have a standard authorizing resolution to vote on if the state approves the project and any needed extension.

Spatz also described a separate set of repairs at the senior/community center that he has submitted to the county for a later funding year. That package of structural and envelope repairs — including brick repointing, door-threshold replacement, interior ceiling and mold remediation, and lighting repairs — carries a conservative cost estimate of about $121,000, he said. That project’s funding window, he said, expires in September 2027.

Council members and a resident speaker reiterated concerns about letting CDBG allocations lapse. One council member noted recent unspent expirations in prior years and urged the borough to be proactive. Spatz emphasized that he is volunteering his engineering services and that the park’s work would reduce contract costs for the borough.

No formal council action or appropriation was taken at the meeting. Council members directed staff to place the CDBG-funded pavilion/accessibility item on the October work session and October council meeting agendas and to coordinate with county staff so the county could bring the required authorizing resolution if the state approves the project or an extension.

Spatz asked for a prompt response because of the February 2026 deadline: “If Joe comes back and says, yeah, the project was approved, but we didn’t get the extension…we gotta get this done before February 2026,” he said.

The council’s next steps are to request the county’s timing on state approval and extension decisions, and, if the county returns with the recommended authorizing resolution, to consider a formal resolution at a posted meeting.