Forty-one projects in Berks County will receive a combined $10.6 million in state funding through a program overseen by the Commonwealth Financing Authority.<\/p>\n
Local lawmakers announced this week that the financing authority had approved a list of Local Shares Account Program grant recipients. The funds are intended to support essential services, improve public safety and invest in housing projects.<\/p>\n
This program was established by the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act of 2004, which provides for the distribution of gaming revenues to support projects in the public interest.<\/p>\n
Counties, municipalities, municipal authorities, economic development agencies and redevelopment authorities are eligible to apply. Projects must be owned and maintained by an eligible applicant or a nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n
The following received grants:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Greater Berks Development Fund, $800,000 for Friend Inc. Community Services to renovate a Kutztown blighted building\u00a0 into a social services center.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Greater Berks Development Fund, $688,709 to support the Schuylkill River Greenways Association in establishing a trailhead at Buttonwood Street in Reading and making improvements to the Schuylkill River Trail.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mount Penn Borough Municipal Authority, $591,712 for the Crystal Lake Restoration Project. This includes restoring 1 mile of walking path and installing a viewing and fishing platform compatible with the Americans With Disabilities Act.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Fleetwood Borough Authority, $570,000 for a new return\u2011activated sludge control box.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Lyons borough, $524,460 for improvements to Lyons Park, including pond and streambank restoration, ADA parking, a new trail loop and park equipment.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Shartlesville Community Fire Company, $500,000 to purchase a fire engine.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Exeter Township, $400,000 to support construction of an emergency services building.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rockland Township, $362,478 to purchase an ambulance for Topton Ambulance.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Cumru Township, $350,000 for Lancaster Pike Master Site Plan project.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Reading Area Water Authority, $350,000 toward the purchase of a hydrovac truck.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Hamburg Municipal Authority, $350,000 for construction of a building to store authority-owned vehicles and water resource equipment and have climate-controlled space for vehicle repairs.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Muhlenberg Township, $304,106 to replace a culvert along Hill Crest Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Douglass Township, $300,000 for improvements to Ganshahawny Park, including parking lot paving, accessible footpaths, gravel truck and boat parking, separate concrete ramps for boats and emergency vehicles and creation of a picnic\/fishing area.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Womelsdorf, $265,000 to purchase communication equipment for the volunteer fire company.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Spring Township, $250,000 toward expansion of the public works building.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Wyomissing, $250,000 for fire station renovations.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Upper Tulpehocken Township, $215,841 for improvements to East Fort Road.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Douglass Township, $202,100 to purchase a backhoe for its public works department.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Reading Regional Airport, $200,000 for terminal renovations and safety and security upgrades.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Shillington, $199,567 to construct an access lane at Shillington Memorial Park.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Hamburg, $191,060 for public works building upgrades, including roof replacement, installing concrete flooring, updating restrooms and adding office space.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Muhlenberg Township, $175,000 to assist Muhlenberg Township Fire & Rescue with the purchase of new fire apparatus.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Upper Tulpehocken Township, $161,200 to pave the municipal office parking lot.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sinking Spring, $160,000 toward a new wheel loader for construction activities.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Heidelberg Township, $160,000 to purchase a work truck.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Hereford Township, $157,998 to purchase a backhoe for public works.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Oley Township, $155,026 for the Oley Fire Company to purchase a utility truck.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mount Penn, $150,000 for Central Berks Regional Police station renovations.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Kenhorst, $149,999 to renovate borough hall.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Robesonia, $140,000 to purchase a\u00a0 municipal truck to improve operational efficiency, reduce maintenance expenses and improve capacity to maintain safe roads.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Muhlenberg Township Authority, $136,480 to extend water mains to the Wawa store under development along the Fifth Street Highway.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mount Penn, $109,764 for renovations to basement space at borough hall, including ADA-compliant restrooms, offices, meeting rooms and other improvements.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Greater Berks Development Fund, $104,328 to assist Opportunity House in replacing a section of roofing at its 430 N. Second St. location.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Berks County Redevelopment Authority, $100,000 to restore sections of the Colebrookdale Railroad, including a bridge rehabilitation project.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Centre Township, $100,000 to purchase a utility tractor and loader for mowing, cleaning debris from roads and loading salt.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mount Penn, $84,807 for the Mount Penn Volunteer Fire Company to purchase a light\u2011duty emergency response vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Western Berks Fire Department, $84,000 to purchase portable radios to replace outdated units. Updated radios will provide improved audio, stronger signal performance and enhanced safety features.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Berks County, $75,000 to replace an aging hazardous materials response vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u2022 North Heidelberg Township, $57,924 to purchase a skid loader for maintenance activities.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Kutztown, $51,669 to purchase and install 12 radar signs to reduce speeding and improve pedestrian safety.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Maxatawny Township Municipal Authority, $49,401 to purchase two sampling stations and pumps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forty-one projects in Berks County will receive a combined $10.6 million in state funding through a program overseen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-287309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}