Block Grant Funding Sought for 3 Rural Water Projects in Centre County

Centre County’s Board of Commissioners will be considering three rural water infrastructure projects for 2026 Community Development Block Grant funding.

The commissioners on Tuesday heard an overview of the applications received to date from the Miles Township Water Authority East, Unionville Borough and the Mountaintop Regional Water Authority.

Centre County was allocated $340,057 for the federal entitlement funds this year and after administrative costs will have $278,857 available for project funding, according to Leslie Hosterman, project coordinator for SEDA-COG, which administers the county’s CDBG funds.

Miles Township Water Authority East requested $223,100 for a project to install a permanent emergency generator at the water treatment plant to provide reliable backup power during outages. The project serving 199 households in the Rebersburg includes the generator unit, automatic transfer switch, associated electrical infrastructure, a fuel storage system and integration into the plant’s existing control systems. Miles Township would pay for engineering services.

Unionville Borough is seeking $266,079 to pay for engineering services for a multiphase $727,641 waterline replacement project. Phase on, which would impact 51 households, will replace 410 linear feet of waterline from the intersection of South Eagle Valley Road and Walnut Street to the beginning of Allegheny Street. Two fire hydrants also will be installed.

Hosterman said the commissioners could consider funding it over multiple years, or recommending it for a competitive funding application to the state’s CDBG Discretionary Program

The most complex and expensive proposal is Mountaintop Regional Water Authority’s project to replace pressure control infrastructure, install pressure-reducing valves, construct a booster pump station and add a new transmission main to reduce system pressures to acceptable levels.

The authority asked for $1,589,000 in CDBG funds for the project which aims to improve water loss situations to meet Department of Environmental Protection requirements, minimize pressure-induced leaks and improve reliability for the system serving abut 1,300 customers in Moshannon, Pine Glen, Snow Shoe Borough, Snow Shoe Township and Burnside Township.

Issues with the Mountaintop system have been long-running, and the authority has been making improvements for years under a consent agreement with the DEP. Its own portion of a well as part of the improvements will be over $1 million, the authority’s Jim Yost said.

Given the large ask far in excess of the county’s available funding, Hosterman said the Mountaintop project might be appropriate for a competitive state funding application, noting that the county had recent success in securing that funding for the Eagle Creek mobile home community sewer project last year.

“It’s a tough sell, but I think they have the customer base, the scope and the need,” Hosterman said.

The county, though, would likely have to commit 75% of its own CDBG funding for this year for the project to have a strong application for the competitive funding, Hosterman said.

The authority is also seeking funding through the state’s Small Water and Sewer program and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, Hosterman said, adding that it might also be a candidate for financing from PENNVEST, a state program that provides low-cost financial for water, sewer and stormwater projects.

Commissioners said they would do what they could to help the authority find the funding.

“We’re probably going to have to see if through whatever connections we have what other grants are available,” Commissioners Steve Dersehm said. “You are going to have to seek other sources of revenue for this, and I think we may be able to help you with that. I think it’s important.”

Federal rules require that for a project to receive CDBG funding, at least 51% of its beneficiaries are in the low-to-moderate income range. All three projects are in the midst of a demographic survey effort to determine income eligibility, Hosterman said.

Results from those surveys and additional information will be presented to the commissioners at their Aug. 6 work session to further inform a decision on this year’s CDBG funding awards.