The CDBG

Jurisdiction(s): Borough of Carlisle

Jurisdiction Web Address:

http://www.carlislepa.org/ linked to:

Redevelopment Authority of Cumberland County Web Address:

www.cchra.com

Contact Person: Thomas A. Fields

Address: Cumberland County Redevelopment Authority, 114 N. Hanover Street, Ste 104 , Carlisle , PA 17013

Telephone: (717) 249-0789 ext 133

Fax: (717) 249-4071

Email: tfields@cchra.com

Funding available under the Recovery Act has clear purposes – to stimulate the economy through measures that modernize the Nation’s infrastructure, improve energy efficiency, and expand educational opportunities and access to health care. HUD strongly urges grantees to use CDBG-R funds for hard development costs associated with infrastructure activities that provide basic services to residents or activities that promote energy efficiency and conservation through rehabilitation or retrofitting of existing buildings. While the full range of CDBG activities is available to grantees, the Department strongly suggests that grantees incorporate consideration of the public perception of the intent of the Recovery Act in identifying and selecting projects for CDBG-R funding.

Grantees must provide information concerning CDBG-R assisted activities in an electronic spreadsheet provided by HUD. The information that must be reported in the spreadsheet includes activity name, activity description, CDBG-R dollar amount budgeted, eligibility category, national objective citation, additional Recovery Act funds for the activity received from other programs, and total activity budget. An electronic copy of the spreadsheet and the format is available on HUD’s recovery website at http://www.hud.gov/recovery.

Activity Narrative: The focus of this activity is preserving safe, decent, affordable housing in the Borough of Carlisle. Eligible beneficiaries are low- and moderate-income homeowners, with preference given to low-income elderly and disabled, who are least likely to be able to afford the necessary work and most affected by economic downturns. The activity will bring rehabilitated housing up to code, which preserves the value of the house as an economic asset for the owner. The amount allotted for each house is $25,000, which will allow for installation of energy efficiency improvements that are not usually done in the Borough’s Owner-Occupied Housing Rehabilitation Program. The energy efficiencies envisioned, replacement windows, added insulation, low flow faucets, HVAC upgrades, etc., will provide long-term cost savings for the homeowners. Beneficiaries will be low- and moderate homeowners, qualified by income verification.

Jobs Created: All work will be contracted out. It is estimated that 5 construction jobs will be retained as a result of these contracts.

Additional Activity Information: The Borough of Carlisle funds an Owner-occupied Housing Rehabilitation program; but, because of the scarcity of funds, energy saving improvements are not emphasized. There are usually only enough funds to address items that are code violations. This activity will include energy conservation measures as an integral part of the rehabs. The amount allotted for each project will be increased $5,000 over the regular program’s funding limit. This should permit the Borough to include many more energy conservation improvements in the work write-ups. An energy checklist has been developed for this activity and it will be used in addition to the usual work write-up inspection checklist. The added energy conservation enhancements will reduce energy consumption, resulting in reduced pollution and will contribute to the financial stability of the homeowners by reducing energy costs.

Responsible Organization: Cumberland County Redevelopment Authority, 114 N. Hanover Street , Carlisle , PA 17013 ; Contact Person: Thomas A. Fields, Community Development Director, telephone: (717) 249-0789 ext 133, fax: (717) 249-4071; e-mail: tfields@cchra.com.

(2) Activity Name: Rehabilitation: Owner-Occupied Housing – Delivery Costs [$4,500]

Activity Narrative: This activity is directly related to Activity # 1 above; but, it is listed separately to separate these funds from the funds that will be expended on direct, contracted-for hard costs. The focus of this activity is preserving safe, decent, affordable housing in the Borough of Carlisle. Eligible beneficiaries are low- and moderate-income homeowners, with preference given to low-income elderly and disabled, who are least likely to be able to afford the necessary work and most affected by economic downturns. The activity will bring rehabilitated housing up to code, which preserves the value of the house as an economic asset for the owner. The amount allotted for each house is $25,000, which will allow for installation of energy efficiency improvements that are not usually done in the Borough’s Owner-Occupied Housing Rehabilitation Program. The energy efficiencies envisioned, replacement windows, added insulation, low flow faucets, HVAC upgrades, etc., will provide long-term cost savings for the homeowners. Beneficiaries will be low- and moderate homeowners, qualified by income verification.

Activity Narrative: This activity will assist a for-profit entity to redevelop and put back into economic use one of the several large, vacant manufacturing plants in the Borough. No entity has been selected yet, but several have inquired about the availability of the facilities and of possible public financial assistance to redevelop them. The funds may be used for acquisition, demolition, renovation, construction, installation of energy saving or environmental protection equipment. Beneficiaries will be low- and moderate residents, qualified by income verification, to whom the job must be made available..

Jobs Created: The assisted for-profit entity will be required to create at least one (1) permanent job in exchange for the assistance from this activity. The total number of jobs created will depend on the type and size of business that is assisted.

Additional Activity Information: Over the past three to five years, the Borough has experienced the loss of a number of large manufacturing businesses and, as a consequence, has a number of large, vacant manufacturing plants for sale or lease. The Borough intends to utilize the funding in this activity to invest in the redevelopment of one of these vacant manufacturing facilities, which will create jobs and promote economic recovery in the Borough through the re-use of vacant manufacturing plants, some of which are brownfields.

Activity Narrative: Activity is the administration of the grant, to include preparing and submitting the application, setting up activities in the on-line system, setting up financial records, processing and paying invoices, collection of accomplishment data, and submitting all required reports. Administration costs equal 7.48% of the $113,704 grant.

The Borough’s planned activities and proposed use of funds was advertised in the local newspaper on May 19, 2009. The same was posted on the web site of the Responsible Organization: www.cchra.com and a link to that site was put on the WEB Site of the Borough of Carlisle. An article on the proposals was published in the local newspaper and on the newspaper’s web site on May 15, 2009. A public hearing on the activities and proposed use of funds was held on May 27, 2009.