Down River: Dialing for Rescue Plan Dollars 3/25
By John Lipez
Dialing for Rescue Plan Dollars:
As Oprah might say, “Here’s $7.4 million for you; here’s $10.7 million for you; here’s $898 thousand for you!”
We’re talking about the multi-million dollars to wend their way to Clinton County, the result of the recently passed and signed American Rescue Plan of 2021 Act. Everybody gets something (and this isn’t the time to get into the politics of this, other than to note, the money flowing here did not receive one Republican vote in Washington. I doubt any GOP-controlled governmental entities across the country will reject this money, but nothing is a surprise anymore).
So ready or not, we all will be standing in line to see what the feds are doling out to us. The American Rescue Plan is the latest in a series of pandemic relief programs and appears to be the mother of all such programs, aimed at providing some financial relief to the less fortunate among us.
The bucks are coming and local governmental entities will be deciding how to make use of them. We do know there will be prohibitions on how the money can be used, but clever accounting on the part of those local entities should be able to allow some creativity in determining the projects they wish to fund.
Certainly the Keystone Central School District looks to be off to a positive start, as per comments from district superintendent Jacquelyn Martin that a primary use will be for increased academic assistance for students negatively impacted by the loss of the in-person classroom experience during much of the last year.
Where else should these dollars flow within the county? Here’s a wish list, in no particular order, offered here as a thought-starter (feel free to offer suggestions of your own):
A countywide code enforcement program:
The concept of a county planning program has served all of Clinton County well, it says here. Why not the same concept (if legal) on the code/health level?
Lock Haven has its own code department but the city is limited, based on anecdotal evidence, to fully ensure the health and well being of city residents. Look at some of the dilapidated structures around town, look at the Fallon Hotel, slowly decaying before our very eyes, look at the Main Street business/apartment building sitting empty and locked up after a Christmas-time upstairs water system break.
Look at Renovo’s Fourteenth Street row houses, the structure sitting in various stages of repair and disrepair, the building’s outlook not bright at all. Renovo borough moved against the occupants of those units and got a favorable court ruling, but it appears does not have the wherewithal/financial resources to proceed further.
Look at the burned-out house sitting a short distance from the Woodward Township municipal building and the Woodward Elementary School. A safety hazard and a blight on that neighborhood, the frame home is sitting as it was after the fire was brought under control last August.
Why not a collaborative effort, a countywide effort with greater resources to address problems such as those identified above?
A few others:
Add more amenities to Lock Haven’s planned improvements at Triangle Park; fix up or plow up the tennis courts beyond the right field fence at the Hoberman Little League Field and at Hanna Park in Lock Haven…
Find a creative way to assist Millbrook Playhouse, a truly under-appreciated jewel in Clinton County; ditto Renovo Heritage Park efforts to maintain the borough’s historic railroad past at the far end of the proposed site for the Renovo Energy Project (my Renovo moles tell me there has been a dialogue between the energy project folks and those involved in maintaining the coal tipple area; another sign the REC project is moving along)…
And the Lock Haven city beach, another under-appreciated part of the community. It looks bleak, it looks sterile (yes, we know the Army Corps of Engineers has a say in any upgrades)…
But free swimming in a gorgeous Susquehanna River valley setting is near priceless. The city should search for some way to upgrade and promote this overlooked attraction…
And anything to further the attractiveness of Lock Haven’s downtown, which looks to be on the precipice of a significant rebirth!
Complete the Central Mountain baseball field:
Certainly Keystone Central is absolutely making the right call in directing some amount of these federal dollars towards improved academics. But if anything is left over, why not the baseball field “up the hill” from Central Mountain High?
The site was excavated a few years ago to provide fill for the latest expansion at First Quality in Castanea Township, but sits empty at this point. In the meantime the high school complex remains one of the few without a useable baseball field on site.
The current setup for baseball is far from ideal: varsity games are played at Mill Hall Community Park, a couple miles away, a playing area adequate at best. And jayvee games are played at Down River’s old stomping grounds; the Beech Creek Cricket field in, you guessed it, Beech Creek. A good five or six miles away. There is a solution: finish up the field beyond Malinak Stadium (and maybe put in some kind of nature site for the acreage between the football field and the baseball site).
Your ideas? Share them here and we’ll pass them along.
