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Residents along a portion of 2nd Street received hope this past Friday. A large swath of walkways damaged by stormwater along 2nd Street, between Keystone and Center, will have sidewalks replaced using any money remaining from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) of $125,000.

Initially turned away by CDBG, as part of the 2nd Street Stormwater Project, an 11th hour appeal for reconsideration was made after residents from 2nd Street showed up at the July 24th Council meeting that involved the 2nd Street project.

Council directed our engineering firm’s representative, Mr. Doug Brown, from Barry Isett & Associates, to approach the Northampton County CDBG once more, in the hope he could persuade them to include the sidewalks as part of the CDBG.

On Friday morning, DCED CDBG Specialist, Mr. Frank Brooks, attended the pre-construction meeting held at the corner of 2nd and Keystone, to view the walks for himself. He made the determination that the damaged walks could be included as part of the overall stormwater remediation project, if the anticipated cost of the stormwater project remained below the amount of the approved grant.

The contract for the stormwater project was awarded in the amount of $103,755, but there are stipulations in place for unexpected cost overruns. The money available for the sidewalks will be dependent upon the final cost of the main project.

Sidewalks, though they are listed as candidates for CDBG funding, aren’t usually approved unless they serve the betterment of an entire community (such as sidewalks for a park).

In the case of 2nd Street, approval was given to use any extra money that might be available from the grant, due to the cause of the extensive damage to the sidewalks. The damage related directly to the torrent of water that runs down their walkways during every storm.

The 2nd Street Stormwater Project begins work on Monday.

UPDATED 11:50 to clarify funds for sidewalks.