Cameron County commissioners approve multiple ACT 13 grants, recreation-center contract and a $1 million tax anticipation note; table security-entrance bid

Cameron County commissioners approved a string of local funding requests, grant agreements and a county renovation contract at their January meeting, while tabling a large security-entrance bid for additional review.

The board voted to allocate up to $28,000 in ACT 13 impact-fee funds to Lumber Township to replace a motor on a road-maintenance truck, with the county to pay the actual invoice amount once the township provides a final bill. Commissioner (S3) moved to approve the allocation and Commissioner (S2) seconded; the measure passed by voice vote. Chair (S1) told the meeting, "We currently have $255,715.16 available in Act 13 to allocate from this year's allocation," and noted only a small portion of this year's allocation had been spent to date.

The commissioners also approved a $10,000 ACT 13 award to Fortis Township to help purchase a tractor with a side-arm mower; officials said Fortis had already secured additional project funding and was requesting a 20% contribution from county impact funds.

On capital projects, the board accepted Economic & Community Development director Cliff Clark's recommendation and awarded the Cameron County Recreation Center renovation contract to Moyer Building and Remodeling. Clark's materials showed Moyer's original bid at about $506,000; commissioners said Moyer worked with county staff to adjust change orders and substitute less costly materials to bring the project in line with the county's grant award, keeping the project on the grant spending timeline. Chair (S1) said the awarded contract is public record and emphasized the urgency of moving forward so grant funds are spent before deadlines.

The board approved a multi-county grant agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (ADAS) to operate a single county authority (this motion covered the county's contract with ADAS specifically), and approved a 9-1-1 state interconnectivity grant agreement effective Jan. 1–Dec. 31, 2026 (award amount not specified in the transcript). They also adopted Fair Housing Resolution No. 2026-1 as presented by Cliff Clark.

Commissioners approved a $4,500 ACT 13 request from the county Office of Community Economic Development to fund branding and marketing design work for the "Wild Elk Gravel" trail project (work that follows earlier mapping funded through North Central and Village to Village Trails). They also authorized Resolution 2026-2 to issue a tax anticipation note series 2026 with Northwest Bank for $1,000,000 at an interest rate reported as 4 percent.

A bid package for the VISCO security-entrance project was discussed at length; a combined bid figure of $807,959 and a separate breakout of $699,459 were presented, but commissioners voted to table the item pending review with the county project manager, engineers and the safety committee.

Chair (S1) also reported receipt of smaller grants to support county operations: a $9,875 continuing county adult probation and parole grant and a $13,821.34 CCAP safety grant earmarked for security-entrance improvements. Several administrative and public-works updates were shared during commissioners' reports, including planned trail and forestry work summarized from the county's VCNR district accomplishments and objectives.

Where votes were recorded in the transcript, decisions were made by voice vote; the meeting record as provided does not list individual roll-call votes for each item. The board scheduled follow-up review meetings where staff or outside project managers were asked to provide additional detail (for example, the VISCO security entrance bid and a project-manager review).