Accessible bathrooms at McKinley Center, street paving part of Penn Hills' plans for block grant

It’s Community Development Block Grant season in Penn Hills, with project bids out for street reconstruction and accessibility improvements at the William McKinley Center.

Each year, Penn Hills receives funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for projects that help low- and moderate-income residents or meet urgent community development needs. Another chunk of change comes from homeowners repaying loans through the municipality’s CDBG-funded housing rehabilitation program.

The municipality anticipates a CDBG grant of about $674,000 and $35,000 in program income, the same as last year.

Chris Blackwell, Penn Hills planning director, estimated that expanding two bathrooms at the William McKinley Center will cost between $50,000 and $60,000. These improvements will give more room for wheelchair users to maneuver and will bring the bathroom into compliance with Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards.

Penn Hills typically uses a portion of the money to make facilities more inclusive. In recent years, the William McKinley Center received new handrails, ramps and door handles. The Penn Hills Senior Center also has benefited in the past.

“A lot of these older buildings were constructed prior to current accessibility standards,” Blackwell said.

Street reconstruction is another usual target for CDBG allocations. About $300,000 likely will go toward milling and repaving Suncrest and Calmar drives this year. Pierceand Eola streets are listed on the request for bids as alternate candidates for reconstruction.

The municipal engineer and public works department will factor in the proposed costs to determine the most efficient combination of streets, according to Blackwell. He anticipates that paving will begin in the spring, as opposed to fall, as the municipality has done in past years.

“We’re getting a jump on the paving season so we’re getting a better price,” Blackwell said.

None of this is official until Penn Hills approves and submits its Annual Action Plan to the HUD. This document also must detail the municipality’s plan to spend about $130,000 in HOME Investment Partnerships Program funding.

Residents, local agencies and other interested parties can give their input on how to best use the CDBG money at two public hearings. The first will be held before the Penn Hills Planning Commission at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22, with another tentatively scheduled at the same time and place for March 21.

Organizations interested in receiving a CDBG allocation can fill out a request form detailing their proposed activity, cost, objective and other relevant information. A maximum of 15% of the grant can go toward these public services, per HUD rules.