Nov 27, 2004 By Steve Ferris 4 min read

Much has changed with the city of Uniontown’s downtown revitalization project since it was unveiled in the spring, and one of the changes has been in how the city will come up with a required match to $3.15 million it was awarded from the state capital budget. The city no longer needs to borrow from the federally funded state Section 108 loan program to get the matching funds, according to Mike Krajovic, president and CEO of Fay-Penn Economic Development Council, the city’s project administrator.

The cost of planning and designing a proposed parking garage on Penn Street and the money spent to create new parking spaces on Main Street will go toward the match, and Fay-Penn is seeking permission to include the money the county is spending on renovating the Federal Building, Krajovic said.

He said those costs combined would equal the city’s required $3.15 million match.

The city had to match the capital budget money so it can be used to build the garage.

In August, the city received an additional $1.5 million in state funds for the project.

During initial planning in May, Fay-Penn proposed borrowing $4.29 million from the Section 108 loan program to match the capital budget allocation and for additional project funding.

Repaying the loan would have required dedicating most of the city’s Community Development Block Grant funding for the next 20 years, according to the original proposal.

The annual loan repayments were estimated at $262,000 and would have left the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority, which uses the CDBG money for its home rehabilitation program, with approximately $38,000 per year for the program after its administrative expenses were subtracted from the annual CDBG allocation. Those numbers were based on this year’s $480,000 CDBG allocation.

A lump sum of $500,000 from the $4.29 million loan would have been given to the authority for the rehab program, and the loan also would have included about $440,000 for improvements to Main and Morgantown streets.

“It would have severely hampered the operations of the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority,” Krajovic said.

He said the authority needs the CDBG money to address housing needs in the city’s residential neighborhoods.

Some CDBG money might still be needed for the project, but the amount would be “nowhere near the original proposal,” Krajovic said.

The city planned to use the state money and the loan to build the garage, acquire and renovate some downtown commercial buildings, improve Main and Morgantown streets and renovate the Union Trust building.

But around the same time the city started putting its plan together, Joseph A. Hardy III announced plans to offer financing to Main Street business and property owners for renovations to their buildings, and to pay for signs and streetscape improvements along Main Street.

It didn’t take long for him to go beyond his original plans by purchasing and renovating a number of commercial buildings, which he is trying to lease to businesses. He also moved forward with an earlier proposal to convert one lane of Main Street into parking spaces.

Since Hardy did some of the work the city originally planned to do, the city and Fay-Penn are focusing on the garage.

Krajovic said the city and Fay-Penn are preparing to send requests for proposals to design the garage to engineering firms. He said he could not predict when construction might start, noting that hiring an engineer is the next step in the process.

Krajovic said he also did not yet know how officials will use a $485,000 federal appropriation that U.S. Rep. John Murtha secured for the project in the federal omnibus appropriations bill passed last weekend.

Krajovic said Fay-Penn and the city asked Murtha if he could help with the project, but the money he obtained for it was a surprise.

“The $485,000 was a surprise, totally unexpected,” Krajovic said. “He was asked to help support the project. This was just a tremendous surprise. This would be a tremendous help to the project. We would like to thank Mr. Murtha.”