Fayette Building on list for state funding
A downtown Uniontown building currently in the tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zone is also on a list of potential projects for consideration for $1 million in funding under Gov. Ed Rendell’s Growing Greener County Environmental Initiative Program. The Fayette Building, owned by Gary Gearing, a Democratic candidate for the 51st District in the state House of Representatives, is on a list of a dozen projects provided by various state agencies to the county commissioners, who get to choose which projects to fund.
An amount of $1 million is listed for the Downtown Revitalization/Fayette Bank Building project on the state’s potential project list for Fayette County. The list includes a total of $7.49 million in potential projects.
Two other projects with price tags of $1 million are on the list, including the “East End Blueprint Community Activities” and the “South Side Housing Activities.” All three projects, including the Fayette Building, are in the city of Uniontown.
No applicants are listed for any of the three city of Uniontown projects, although the submitting agency is the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Kevin Ortiz, spokesman for DCNR, said he was unaware how the projects were selected for the list.
A $3 million project for North Union Township to construct Phillips North AMD treatment plan is also on the list, and that applicant is the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation.
Gearing said Friday he was “completely clueless” as to how his building got on the state list for potential funding. Gearing said he was not aware that it was included on the list and did not ask for consideration. He said if someone applied on his behalf, he would have thought he would have been made aware of that fact. Gearing said he is working toward securing a repayable loan project through the anchor building program to bring businesses to the Fayette Building.
The county commissioners will ultimately select which projects receive the funding, but they do not have to use the state-provided list.
Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination for the 51st District in the state House of Representatives, said he was unaware of the state list and was only considering projects provided by the conservation district. He said the Fayette Building was not on the list he was working from. Vicites said the three categories the county can consider are farmland preservation, recreational tourism and environmental.
Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink was not in favor of the bond referendum that created Growing Greener and did not vote for it because it failed to specify the programs it would fund.
Commissioner Joseph A. Hardy III, who contributed a substantial amount to Gearing’s campaign when he ran for the state House as an independent two years ago, could not be reached for comment.
Tammy Stenson, director of the Fayette County Office of Planning, Zoning and Community Development, said the county did receive a list from the state, but only a few of the projects were extracted from it for consideration. “Maybe only two projects were picked from the (state) list,” Stenson said. “We tried to be really fair.”
Stenson said the guidelines of meeting the categories for funding of environmental, recreational and agricultural were followed when selecting potential projects for the county. She said she was unsure how the Fayette Building would fall into any of those categories.
Although Stenson declined to identify specific projects, she said she worked with the county conservation district to submit a list of projects for this such as storm water management, flooding and parks and recreation. She said about 14 to 15 projects were sent to the state for consideration and will ultimately be approved by the commissioners.
Stenson said they tried to pick projects that would affect as many areas of the county as possible.
Fayette County was authorized to receive $1.39 million to designate capital improvement projects, in consultation with the county conservation district.
The Growing Greener Referendum, approved in the May 2005 primary, authorized the state to incur debt of up to $625 million for the maintenance and protection of the environment, open space and farmland preservation, watershed protection, abandoned mine reclamation, acid mine drainage remediation, community redevelopment and other environmental initiatives.