$5.4 million in loans to fund five projects through Fayette infrastructure bank
Mark Hofmann | Herald-Standard
Connellsville Township Secretary Darla Hann (far left) and Connellsville Township Supervisor Chairman Todd Miner (far right) sign documents to secure a loan through the county’s infrastructure bank. Seated between them, from left, are Commissioners Vince Vicites, Dave Lohr and Scott Dunn.
Submitted
This aerial photograph shows the 85-acre site of the new business park in Fayette County along Northgate Highway and Old Pittsburgh Road in North Union Township.
More than $5 million in loans through the Fayette County Infrastructure Bank will help fund projects that range from improvements at a business park to sidewalk and street reconstruction.
The latest round of borrowers put pen to paper Tuesday, the last step in securing the funding.
County commissioners, along with Community Networking Resources (CNR) and HRG Engineering Inc., introduced the infrastructure bank in September 2021, making Fayette the fourth county in both the state and the nation to launch such a program. The bank helps both municipalities and municipal authorities fund infrastructure projects by applying for loans from a special county fund.
The lion’s share of this round of funding — $3 million — will go to the county’s redevelopment authority to make infrastructure improvements to the site of the new business park off of Northgate Highway and Old Pittsburgh Road in North Union Township.
Andrew French, authority executive director, previously said the loan will be used in the first phase of the project, which includes excavation work to prepare for the development and the installation of infrastructure including storm water controls, utilities and an entrance road off of Northgate Highway. The road will lead into the first six lots of the future 85-acre business park, which is anticipated to create a unique, suburban, commercial and residential development.
Connellsville Township Supervisor Chairman Todd Miner, who attended the signing, said the infrastructure bank’s $473,186 loan to the township will pave the way for water and sewage work, along with sidewalk and street reconstruction. Miner said the funding will match grants already in place for the projects that include extending a walkway on Francis Avenue to Crawford Avenue, adding drainage to Hawthorne Street and updating draining on Schultz Avenue.
“This (loan) opens up doors we didn’t have, and the residents don’t have to wait as long,” Miner said.
He noted that the walkway extension will make the grave of Zachariah Connell — Connellsville’s founder — more accessible.
Both the township and redevelopment authority loans have 20-year repayments.
Other projects that received funding were:
n $1.5 million, with a 20-year repayment term, for enhancements and improvements to the Southside in Brownsville Borough;
n $30,000, with a 10-year repayment term, for a bridge replacement project in Brownsville Township; and
n $406,167, with 10-year repayment term, for a retaining wall project in Perry Township.
Commissioner Dave Lohr said the infrastructure bank “cuts down the red tape” to get improvements done in a more timely manner.
“It’s quicker and easier than anything coming from the state or federal government,” he said.
As a former councilman in Dunbar, Commissioner Scott Dunn said he knows what a struggle it is to find funding for projects.
“If you could find it, it always came with extreme costs, and if it’s a grant, you had to wait for two or three years,” Dunn said. “The timing issue and the cost of money can be daunting for a small municipality.”
Since its inception, Commissioner Vince Vicites said the infrastructure bank has helped fund 12 projects to the tune of about $14 million, and he hopes the next round of funding will bring the total to $20 million.
“If you have more infrastructure, you have more long-term growth and development,” Vicites said.
For more information on the infrastructure bank, visit www.fayettecountypa.org/839/Fayette-County-Infrastructure-Bank