Mike Crowley
The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
(TNS)
A plan to spend federal funds left over from the extensive renovation of Huidekoper Park on a fire truck and stormwater improvements moved forward Thursday as Meadville and Crawford County officials held a public hearing on the proposed spending changes.
Three members of the public attended the hearing; none objected to the plan.
Comments on the proposal will continue to be accepted by mail or email through Aug. 11.
If approved, the plan would redirect approximately $248,000 from the ongoing Huidekoper Park renovations to the purchase of a 2016 Spartan fire apparatus, a 750-gallon pumper truck to replace the 2004 Smeal pumper currently in use by Meadville Central Fire Department.
The money is part of approximately $579,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that the city is repurposing. The overall sum includes nearly $313,000 in funding previously allocated to the park renovation project. The significant surplus remains even after Meadville City Council approved $199,000 in additional park improvements earlier this year.
“That project received kind of an overwhelming amount of support through funding through CDBG competitive discretionary funds and the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources,” said Samantha Travis, Crawford County Planning Office deputy director, during a presentation at the hearing, “and the construction came in at a lower amount than anticipated, and that left the city with this funding that couldn’t be used in the park that needs to be reallocated to another CDBG-eligible activity.”
Much of the park funding also comes with an expiration date, according to City Manager Maryann Menanno. Nearly $161,000 has to be expended by April 2025, she told The Meadville Tribune earlier this week. Given the time limitations, the bureaucratic demands of reallocating CDBG funds and the logistics of weather-dependent construction, Menanno said that adding a fire truck quickly became a leading proposal for reallocating much of the funding.
The truck is needed, according to Chief Evan Kardosh, given the department’s level of activity and the condition of the 20-year-old Smeal engine.
“July was our busiest month in fire department history,” Kardosh said immediately after attending the hearing. In addition to routine inspections and regular training, crews responded to 270 emergency calls for the month — more than any other period in the history of Meadville Central, which has been a paid department since 1888 and which dates back to volunteer origins in 1838, according to Kardosh. Through the end of July, he added, the department has responded to more emergency calls than it did for all of 2021.
Turning to the Smeal engine, which remains in service with the appropriate certifications, Kardosh said the National Fire Protection Association calls for fire trucks to be replaced after 20 years. When the department added a new “quint” engine early last year, it took the place of two trucks that had been in use for 30 and 32 years, respectively. “Quints” carry the five primary firefighting tools: pump, water tank, fire hose, aerial device and ground ladders.
“We’ve had numerous maintenance concerns with it. It’s had frame repair that has gotten us by, but it’s not a long-term solution. There’s issues with the pumps,” Kardosh said of the 2004 Smeal engine. “There are concerns between the fire department and the city mechanic that at any moment there could be a catastrophic failure based on its condition.”
Refurbishing the Smeal engine would likely cost more than purchasing the used engine under consideration, according to Kardosh. He said the used Spartan engine the city had identified in working with a broker has previously been used in a “no-salt, no-corrosion area,” making it a good candidate for potentially being used for another 20 years or more.
Another $330,000 in CDBG funding would be redirected from housing rehabilitation to stormwater improvements on upper Water Street in a blighted area that has been targeted for redevelopment. Menanno said that the proposed housing rehabilitation had not involved any specific projects and had served as a “placeholder” in the city’s annual CDBG awards.
Also being reallocated is just over $6,400 that had been intended for accessibility improvements and new smoke and carbon monoxide detectors at Fairview-Fairmont Apartments. The upgrades were implemented independently by the apartment complex before the city received its CDBG award, which made the project ineligible for funding through the program, according to Travis.
Menanno said that once invoices for the work are provided, the city can reimburse the apartment complex using non-CDBG funds.
Jerry Boyle, treasurer of French Creek Recreational Trails (FCRT), attended the hearing and asked if funding could be made available for extending Ernst Trail, which FCRT maintains, into the city.
Travis said such a project would almost certainly not be eligible for CDBG funding. Menanno added that alternative funding sources might be available from the city.
CDBG funding must be used to benefit residents of low to moderate income. In areas where at least 51 percent of residents qualify as low to moderate income, projects that benefit all residents can be funded. In a recent HUD update, the entire city of Meadville was categorized as a low- to moderate-income area, according to Menanno. Previously, particular portions of the city had been so designated, but others had not been eligible.
CDBG funding must also be used to benefit residents of the municipality receiving the funding, Travis noted, and a trail that attracts visitors from around the region would likely not qualify. In fact, she added, Crawford County’s past attempts to use CDBG funding for that purpose were rejected.
Written public comments on the city’s proposed reallocation of CDBG funds can be submitted via email to mmenanno@cityofmeadville.org or by mail to City Manager Maryann Menanno, 894 Diamond Park.
City Council is expected to vote on the reallocation later this month.
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