Redevelopment authority awards housing contract
The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority awarded a contract Tuesday for constructing three single-family homes on Maple Street. Threshold Housing Development of Uniontown was awarded the contract to build the homes using $528,000 in grant money the authority received from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).
Authority Executive Director Mark Yauger said the authority received a $300,000 NSP grant and $228,000 in proceeds from the sale of six homes built in Masontown using NSP money.
Construction should begin in October and will be completed in the spring, Yauger said.
The Victorian-style homes, which have been designed, will cost $168,000, $172,500 and $187,900 to build, but will be sold for less because income-qualified buyers will receive grants and deferred loans from the authority, Yauger said.
Income qualifications vary from a maximum income of $50,715 for a single person to $72,450 for a family of four.
Yauger said a local realtor would sell the homes for the authority.
In unrelated business, the authority adopted a resolution that transfers ownership of The Heritage, a 36-unit senior citizen apartment building on Peter Street, from the authority’s non-profit arm, the Uniontown Property Development Corp. (UPDC), to the Fayette County Housing Authority (FCHA).
The resolution requires the UPDC, which owns The Heritage, to pay the authority $130,000 when the building is transferred to the FCHA.
The $130,000 is the authority’s developer’s fee.
Yauger said the authority gave the UPDC a $480,000 deferred loan to build The Heritage in 1994.
The authority has been working on transferring The Heritage to the FCHA since the subsidies that authority and UPDC used to subsidize the rent tenants pay expired in 2009. The FCHA has rental subsidies it would apply to the building, Yauger said, adding that a deed covenant requires that the building be used for senior citizen housing.
Turning to another matter, Yauger said the state Department of Transportation said it would advertise for bids for the Morgantown Street streetscape project in January 2011.
He said the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), which is providing Community Development Block Grant money for the project, wants the project to start soon.
If the project is delayed much longer, the DCED will require the authority to reprogram the money to another project, he said.
The project has been delayed since it was first proposed in 1997.
In other business, the authority:
n Received the contract for a $250,000 state grant for constructing new sidewalks on Maple Street and housing rehabilitation.
n Awarded a contract to A.C. Moyer Co. of Lemont Furnace to resurface Lenox Street, Pershing Avenue, Cleveland Avenue and Edgemont Drive. Moyer’s bid of $71.30 per ton of asphalt was the lower of two bids submitted for the project.
n Awarded a contract to B & G Trucking of Uniontown to demolish condemned homes at 102 Lenox St., 39 Prospect St. and 114 Millview St. for $11,998. B & G submitted the lowest of four bids for the work.
n Announced that a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Gallatin Avenue Concerned Citizens’ community garden on Lincoln Street will be held at the garden at 11 a.m. Sept. 28.
n Announced that a reception to officially launch the Weed and Seed program will be held in the East End United Community Center at 6 p.m. Oct. 14.
n Authorized Elm Street program manager Jeff McLaughlin to hire a part-time assistant after he and Yauger finish interviewing applicants.