State grant money could go to waste

From the BCCT.

If you have any further problems with deciding how to handle the grant money, make the check payable to the "Morrisville School District" and send it to the attention of Paul DeAngelo, Business Administrator.

State grant money could go to waste
By JOAN HELLYER
Bucks County Courier Times

The school board held off financial support for the plan until priority concerns are identified.

Bristol's municipal government has won a $250,000 state grant to fix up local ball fields, but that money could go to waste if the school district doesn't help match the funds, borough council President Ralph DiGuiseppe said.

"Do we want to invest the $500,000? It's either that or we give the $250,000 back to the state and say, 'Thank you, but no thank you.' We don't need any more fields for the borough. It's up to the school," DiGuiseppe said during the board's meeting Thursday night.

Despite the plea, the board remained noncommittal. President David Chichilitti said the board does not want to commit any money to the project until the most pressing needs for playing fields are identified.

The borough obtained the $250,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to make the improvements. It has to match the $250,000 with its own money or money from other sources in order to use the state funds, officials said. No deadline has been announced.

The municipality could contribute $150,000 if the school board would pitch in another $150,000 to secure the matching grant, DiGuiseppe said. The extra $50,000 would be used to cover design fees and other related costs, he said.

Bristol insiders say the board is taking a cautious approach to the request because the district recently paid the borough almost $500,000 in construction and permit fees for the new pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school under construction off Beaver Street.

The payment, as required by borough officials, was made in a lump sum at the beginning of the project instead of as costs were incurred. DiGuiseppe promised the school board in early 2008 that any fee money leftover at the end of the project would be used for recreational purposes.

Now that the new school is just about completed, board members want to see what taxpayer dollars will be left over from the fees to use toward the ball field renovations, district sources said.

In the meantime, Chichilitti asked that a joint committee, made up of district and borough representatives, determine what's needed to accommodate area ball teams. Once the priority concerns are identified, the board could decide if it wants to be involved in the renovation project, he said.

Board members made the request Thursday after Evan Stone, a site designer with Pennoni Associates Inc., presented an overview of the proposed improvements to four ball fields at Memorial Fields off Jefferson Avenue that would be partially paid for with the matching funds.

The $500,000 would cover costs associated with the first phase of an estimated $1.4 million project that could be done in two phases, Stone said.

This is the second time in as many months Stone gave board members an overview. During the initial presentation in February, district representatives asked Stone to go before the full board to sketch out the project. However, board members Steve Cullen, Mary Jane Paglione and Louis Persichetti Sr. did not attend Thursday's meeting.

Given their absence, Chichilitti said he was reluctant to ask board members if they wanted to help finance the work.

Chichilitti said the board wants to make sure the work addresses areas that need improvements. For instance, he said, the fields' bathrooms do not need to be replaced right now. They just need some touchup paint. As part of that review, Chichilitti asked Stone to provide the committee with specific deadlines for the process involved in securing the state grant.

He asked board member James Petrino and Athletic Director Greg Pinelli to represent the district on the committee along with another board member still to be named. DiGuiseppe agreed to appoint three municipal representatives to the committee and the board agreed to split Pennoni's fees with the borough.