READING, Pa. \u2013 At its Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday night, Reading City Council heard a request from the Reading Housing Authority to reallocate almost a million dollars in grant funding to improve the Oakbrook playground and athletic field.<\/p>\n
The reallocation is on next Monday’s voting meeting agenda and was recommended by the city administration. Specifically, it calls for allotting $990,250 in Community Development Block Grant funds to the project.<\/p>\n
Finance Director Jamar Kelly said the city receives its CDBG grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has specific timelines on when funds must be spent.<\/p>\n
Kelly said the original intent was to use the funds for a new sidewalk improvement project for city residents, but because the project could not meet an implementation date of Nov. 1, the city recommended reallocating the funds to the housing authority.<\/p>\n
Kelly said the city was aware of the construction project for the Oakbrook Homes, which had a funding gap.<\/p>\n
But Kelly stressed that the sidewalk improvement project is not defunct and will instead be financed through city funds.<\/p>\n
The last sidewalk project was done in 2023 where residents could apply for grant funding to have their sidewalks repaired.<\/p>\n
City Council members said they are very interested in hearing the details of how a 2026 sidewalk project will work and requested the city administration make a presentation at a future Committee of the Whole meeting.<\/p>\n
Reading Housing Authority Executive Director Stacey Keppen explained the $3 million construction project will upgrade the recreation area and replace the existing ball field for the benefit of residents in the 530-unit Oakbrook Homes complex.<\/p>\n
David C. Talarico, RHA vice president and director of facilities, said the park area is located between McClellan Street to the east and Brookline Plaza to the west.<\/p>\n
Talarico said the improvements to the baseball field will include the creation of dugouts, an announcer’s booth and a storage area for athletic equipment.<\/p>\n
“And then beyond the outfield fence, it includes a picnic grove with a meandering path, picnic stations, grills, tables, benches and lighting,” Talarico said. “It’s a pretty well-thought-out plan, and part of that plan is getting youth activities and family recreation outdoors.”<\/p>\n
Councilmembers said they are very supportive of the project that gives public housing new amenities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 At its Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday night, Reading City Council heard a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5012,5013,5011,3438,28,736,128,1095,130,129,5015,5014],"class_list":["post-5497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berkshire-building","tag-department-of-housing-and-urban-development","tag-madison-building","tag-oakbrook","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-council","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-eagle-building","tag-reading-housing-authority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5497","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=5497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}