Dunbar council to seek $20,000 state grant to upgrade park
DUNBAR – Council passed a resolution Monday that opens the door for it to apply for a $20,000 Department of Conservation of Natural Resources (DCNR) grant to upgrade Dunaway Field and Park. Recreational chairman Ben Beal said last week’s public input meeting gave council a lot of good ideas on upgrading the ball field and playground.
“Thanks to Dunbar Little League vice president Chip Nicholson, we came away from the meeting with a lot of good ideas,” said Beal. “He suggested that we install dusk-to-dawn lights for security, a backstop, a concession stand with bathroom facilities and pave the basketball and tennis courts.”
Beal said the tennis courts could be used by youths to play street hockey during the warm months and be flooded and used for ice skating and ice hockey during the winter months – if a 4-inch lip is constructed around the tennis courts.
Councilman Ron Gross said he wasn’t satisfied with the repair job the Dunbar Borough Township Sanitary Authority did at the basketball court after it put a sewer line through.
“I thought that they were supposed to resurface the entire basketball court, but, instead, they only patched it,” said Gross. “I think someone should check with them and see if they are going to have the contractor finish the project.”
Beal said the borough should know by spring 2004 if it received the grant. The grant application deadline is Oct. 23.
Councilwoman Kathy Dynes said the next step is to have an engineering study done by Widmer Engineering Inc. of Connellsville.
In an unrelated matter, councilwoman Kathy Dynes reported that the borough received a $30,000 housing grant. Dynes said the money would be used on units 42-46 to replace the roof and fix porches.
Dynes also said that the Fayette County Redevelopment Authority would put the project out for bids.
In other business, council:
– Agreed to contract with Morton Salt at $37.76 a ton. Secretary Rachelle Hughes said the price of salt went up about 60 cents from last year.
Council said it would agree to purchase about 120 tons of salt because it only ordered 60 tons last year and used 163 tons.
Hughes said all the contract does is lock in the price for the borough and ensure that at least 120 tons of salt will be set aside for the borough.
– Awarded a contract to Green Acres of Scottdale in the amount of $2,600 to install 126 feet of guiderail on Speers Hill. Councilman William Watson said some of the guiderail post would be installed to help protect the hillside from falling forward, while other portions of the guiderails would be installed to keep people from parking too close to the wall.
“We have already reinforced the wall with our own posts, but we still need to put wire baskets with stones there to shore it up,” said Watson.
“I imagine it will take at least six 6-foot baskets to do the project.”
Watson said he expects the work to be completed by Aug. 18.
Dynes asked solicitor Doug Sepic to look into the Dunbar borough creek project and to find out if portions of the borough are still considered in the 100-year flood-zone area. Dynes said the Dunbar creek project was started a number of years ago and corrective measures have been taken on Dunbar Creek to prevent flooding.
Dynes said homeowners in the flood zone are required to carry flood insurance on their properties if they have mortgages, and the insurance is extremely costly.
Sepic said the situation is a “big bureaucratic mess. I guess my next step is to talk to somebody from the general counsel’s office to find out about the acquisition of properties.”