BELLEFONTE — The Centre County commissioners will use more Act 13 funds to help Boggs Township repair a small bridge on Gum Stump Road that has been declared to be structurally deficient.
Because the bridge is less than 20 feet long, federal funding is not available and state funding is hard to come by, said Mike Bloom, of the Centre County Planning Office. Bloom said the bridge is in poor shape, with many issues, including a tree growing through a wall of the bridge.
The township is planning on fixing the bridge and has already received $25,000 of Act 13 funding from the county, but is now asking for an increase in funding to $84,250. This increase would cover 25 percent of the cost of the bridge repair and allow the township to work on other projects. The original funds covered only 7.4 percent of the total repair costs.
The bridge needed to be declared structurally deficient in order for the repair to be covered by Act 13 funds. “Act 13 is the tax that is on natural gas that is extracted from Centre County, and Boggs Township is impacted by the natural gas extraction, so I think this is a good fit,” said Commissioner Steven Dershem.
“This would get one more bridge off our list,” said Dave Veneziano, Boggs Township supervisor. “We are trying to check them off in a methodical way that we can afford.”
