State College Borough Council on Monday approved moving some of its federal Community Development Block Grant Funding for 2025 to a downtown streetlight project and to safety improvements that will allow the Out of the Cold shelter to expand bed availability during extreme weather.
The $191,003.50 had originally been designated in the borough’s 2025 Annual Action Plan for installation of additional streetlights and pedestrian improvements along Waupelani Drive between Whitehall Road and South Atherton Street. But, “the scope of the project was still taking shape making it infeasible to complete an environmental review and to complete the project in 2025. Due to the need to spend federal grant funds more quickly, an alternative project was needed,” Maureen Safko, senior planner, wrote in a policy briefing summary.
Instead, amendments to the plan approved by council will provide $130,000 to complete a streetlight and curb replacement project on South Garner Street, and the remaining $61,003.50 will go to Out of the Cold, one of the borough’s designated CDBG subrecipients, for a sprinkler expansion and radon mitigation project.
For Out of the Cold, the expansion of the fire suppression system at the 318 S. Atherton St. shelter will allow for the sheltering of additional individuals during times such as “Code Blue” conditions, when extreme cold necessitates providing extra overnight beds.
The borough and Out of the Cold worked with Centre Region Code last winter to be able to accommodate additional guests during extreme cold, but the sprinkler extension “will allow that then to be a permanent process going forward,” Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said.
The scope of work on the project has expanded to include radon mitigation and adding a basement egress point, increasing the number of beds that can be made available. The borough previously allocated $140,000 in CDBG funds to the project.
Funds shifted to the South Garner Street project will allow for the near completion of a multi-decade streetlight replacement throughout the downtown. According to the briefing summary, only nine streetlights and one curb cut remain to be replaced on the east side of the 100 block of South Garner Street after all streetlights and curb ramps on the western side of the block were replaced by the developer of The Maxxen high-rise during its construction.
Work for the streetlight and curb cut replacements will be completed by borough public works staff and does not require easements or a highway occupancy permit.
The borough still plans to complete the Waupelani Drive project in the future, Fountaine said.
“The Waupelani project is to add additional lighting and it continues to be a high priority,” he said. “This is to meet our expenditure deadlines. The Garner Street project can be done in a shorter time. The Waupelani project will still move forward. I don’t have a firm date for it yet but it will still move forward.”
He added, in response to a question to a question from council member Gopal Balachandran, that the move to a project that could be completed more quickly was not related to any proposed federal policy and budget changes.
“It’s necessary that in order to meet our timeliness requirements and avoid not only losing this money but also potentially having reductions in funding in the future that we move these expenditures forward,” Fountaine said.
