Jefferson County staff report $7.9M in community-directed spending allocations for local projects

Jefferson County staff reported that Jefferson County secured multiple federal community-directed spending (CDS) awards this cycle that will support local transportation, public-safety and streetscape projects.

Jessica Siri, a county staff member, told commissioners that the county received CDS funding from several federal elected officials, including Senator McCormick, Senator Thurman, Senator Fetterman and Congressman Thompson. She said the county’s Du Bois Regional Airport will receive $4,190,000 for paving taxiways, an access road and the parking lot. Jessica described that amount as unusually large for a CDS award.

Jessica also said Congressman Thompson and Senator Fetterman cosponsored funds for Jefferson County’s 9-1-1 center engineering work; she later clarified the amount for that project as $462,416 to cover engineering. She reported Senator Fetterman put forward $1,150,000 for pedestrian-safety projects in District 10 and that Falls Creek Borough received $1,100,000 for a streetscape project focused on sidewalks and beautification.

Jessica noted that community-directed spending is highly competitive across the Commonwealth and that shifting allocations after the initial release meant Falls Creek was able to receive funding after another recipient declined or allocations changed. She emphasized that receiving CDS allocations from all three federal officials was a significant success for a county of Jefferson’s size.

The transcript does not record project-level design details, implementation timelines, or which local entities will manage each grant; those details were not specified during the report.