Borough opens public hearing on 2026 CDBG plan and proposed spending priorities

Jessica Lers, a consultant with M and L Associates, told the borough council at a public hearing that Carlisle is scheduled to receive $370,373 in Community Development Block Grant funding for fiscal year 2026 and outlined how the borough proposes to spend the money.

Lers said the borough has identified three priority goals required by HUD: providing decent housing, ensuring a suitable living environment and expanding economic opportunity. "HUD just describes low to moderate as anyone making 80% of area median income or below," she said, and noted projects must principally benefit those households.

The draft allocations Lers described include about $55,000 toward increasing affordable housing via rental-rehabilitation and homeownership-rehabilitation programs, roughly $90,000 for code enforcement to remediate and reduce blight, about $44,000 for three public-service projects (including community-center utilities and support for first-responder/community-policing programs), and funding for public-facility work — named projects included Lincoln Cemetery, the Valley Meadows Park playground expansion and the purchase of a fire apparatus. Lers also said the borough planned to set aside roughly $55,000 for administration and staff to manage the projects.

Lers closed by inviting public comment both at the meeting and in writing and noting a written-comment deadline: "we can take that now and or you can do written comments through the May 13," she said. No attendees provided in-person public comment during the hearing.

The hearing is the borough's second public meeting on the 2026 CDBG annual action plan; the council will accept written input before finalizing recommendations and any CDBG-funded projects that move forward.