Centre County’s Board of Commissioners on Tuesday awarded about $282,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds for 2025 to two municipal water infrastructure projects.
The Haines-Aaronsburg Municipal Authority will receive $202,808 to be used toward a $223,000 replacement of water main and valves on West Plum Street and West Aaron Square. The Haines-Woodward Municipal Authority, meanwhile, will receive $79,418 for replacement of 700 feet of water line on Mountain Avenue, which has a total estimated cost of $295,000.
The funding will allow for the completion of both projects, according to Leslie Hosterman, project coordinator for SEDA-COG, which administers the county’s CDBG funds. HAMA has indicated it is able to cover engineering and remaining construction costs for the Aaronsburg project. The Mountain Avenue project has CDBG funds from 2023, and was seeking additional money to cover higher-than-anticipated costs.
Milesburg Borough had also made two requests for funding toward road surface improvements: $38,000 Limestone Street and $20,000 for Creek Street.
Planning staff, however, met with Milesburg officials and discussed county transportation funds — liquid fuels and fee for local use money — as better funding options, Hosterman said.
“We have two other sources to work on transportation infrastructure, whereas we don’t really have any other source of helping the water and sewer authorities in the rural parts of the county,” Commissioner Mark Higgins said.
“It’s a lot more streamlined too,” Commissioner Steve Dershem said. “The process for us approving money from those funds is simpler than the CDBG process.”
Centre County’s total CDBG entitlement for this year was $343,476. After the $61,250 that goes to SEDA-COG for administering the block grant, all of the remaining funding was allocated to the two water infrastructure projects.
“We don’t have to commit every dollar, but generally it’s good to commit most of it,” Higgins said.
Centre County already had the funding in hand for its current CDBG entitlement, formula-based federal funding issued annually to support a variety of community development activities with a focus on benefiting low- and moderate-income residents.
The future of CDBG has been in doubt, however, as the Trump administration’s budget proposal released in May recommends eliminating the entire $3.3 billion program.
But a bipartisan bill in the U.S. Senate has offered what Higgins called a “ray of hope.” The Build Now Act introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and approved in committee this week would maintain CDBG but tie a community’s funding to improving their track record on building more housing.
Communities would have a two-year grace period to improve housing growth before adjustments to funding are made.
“I believe it’s looking at a small cut, but relatively small,” Higgins said. “So we’d like to thank the citizens of Centre County and central Pennsylvania who have contacted their federal representatives. It appears you’ve made a bit of difference.”
