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county building (January 15, 2013) |
The Somerset County commissioners signed a contract Tuesday to receive $741,261 in community development funds for 2012 projects.
The process was delayed by five months mainly because of fiscal uncertainty at the federal level, according to Somerset County Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Steven Spochart. The authority administers the federal funding on the county's behalf.
"Today was more of a formality," Spochart said. "Executing the contract is the last thing we have to do to lock in the money."
The unanimous decision by the commissioners came after a discussion among them about the value of the entitlement Community Development Block Grant Program.
The grant funds are used primarily for infrastructure projects in municipalities. Funds are distributed on an entitlement basis to municipalities with more than 4,000 people. At least 70 percent of the money must benefit low- to moderate-income residents, Spochart said.
The grant funding is 14 percent less than last year, he said, calling the decrease a disappointing trend.
At least one commissioner indicated he was pleased by the decrease in federal funding.
"We are heading in the right direction," Commissioner Joe Betta said.
He said he was watching out for the taxpayers. Betta said he had no way of knowing what other critical projects in the county needed the funding. He said he could not support a contract for federal funds for projects that he is not intimately involved with from the beginning. He called the program "a misappropriation of funds."
Commissioners Pamela Tokar-Ickes and John Vatavuk strongly disagreed.
