SLIB denies Heritage Park funding
The Heritage Park Steering Committee and the city of Newcastle are exploring other funding avenues for Heritage Park after the State Loan and Investment Board denied the city’s funding request due to ineligibility. The city had earmarked the park as a No. 1 priority when requesting funds available through coronavirus relief funds available in the American Rescue Plan.
As previously reported, several groups have been developing the idea for a park that will include a veterans memorial, festival/market area, restrooms and splash pad. (A splash pad, also known as a spray pool, is a recreation area, usually in a public space, with little to no standing water.)
According to Dave Ehlers, a member of the Heritage Park Steering Committee, he was blindsided by the denial of the funding request after receiving positive feedback from the state prior to receiving the letter of ineligibility before the SLIB meeting. He noted that the project was deemed ineligible because the project did not meet the COVID threshold.
“It is frustrating because capital projects were held to a different standard with it being COVID money,” Ehlers told the News Letter Journal. “Capital projects were held to, ‘How does this project recover from what happened during COVID?’… Whereas, other projects did not have that threshold.”
Due to the denial of funding, he reported that the committee is now engaged in a reevaluation process to examine the project and explore potential funding sources.
The estimated cost for Heritage Park is $3,412,785, and the city had requested $2,837,785 in coronavirus relief funds to pay for the project. Ehlers said that the project now may require completion in phases depending on funding options.
“The grant was denied,” Gualtieri announced on March 6 during the City Council’s regular meeting. “I was asked by Dave if it was okay to locate other funds and grant opportunities.”
The council agreed, expressing support for Ehlers and Heritage Park.
Lift Station Approved
The SLIB did provide some good news to Newcastle, however, as the board did approve funding for the city’s No. 2 priority, the Duff Avenue project. It had initially been listed as the city’s No. 1 priority, but was bumped to No. 2 at the urging of the Heritage Park committee.
The $1.2 million Duff Avenue project is for replacing the city’s sewer main and lift station.The grant for that project, according to interim city engineer Chuck Barlett, would be for 84% of the project’s cost, leaving the other 16% as a match paid by the city.
According to information provided by public works supervisor Greg Stumpff, the Duff Avenue grant would cover $1,008,858 of the total, with the city responsible for $192,164.
Ehlers had provided the council on Feb. 6 with a letter from the committee asking the council to reconsider the priority list that had originally placed Heritage Park as its No. 3 priority on Jan. 17.
“It is our position that based on the category and the identification for this round of ARPA funding that the Heritage Park application is best suited and should rank higher than the other two applications,” Ehlers said.
At the time, he noted that this latest round of coronavirus relief funding was designated for capital improvements and not water and sewer projects.
“The grant application submitted by the Heritage Park committee will be the strongest of the applications in this particular category,” Ehlers predicted.
Barlett supported Ehlers’ position, indicating the belief that water and sewer project requests for this round of funding would be a lower priority than capital projects such as Heritage Park.
Stumpff, however, stressed the need for the Duff Avenue and Seventh Avenue projects.
“The only problem is, we have been looking at this lift station since 2017. It is costing us more money all the time, and if something does happen catastrophic with it, you are looking at $200 a day just in pump rental,” he said. “It is a critical piece of infrastructure for 125 homes in Gray Addition.”
