On Monday, July 28, 2008, Borough Council held a public hearing regarding a grant application for $250,00 for a revolving loan fund.
After that hearing, at which no one spoke, the Council tabled the vote on the matter. Seems that neither the Council members nor the Borough Manager actually had any papers or solid information about the grant application.
Since the matter had been advertised for a public hearing back on July 17th, you might think that somebody in the Borough government would actually know what it was all about. Perhaps the Manager, who presumably arranged for the advertising, could have informed himself. Maybe he could then have passed the information on to Council. Is that too much to expect?
Instead, the Manager and Council simply moved forward with a public hearing despite their own virtually total ignorance.
What sort of public hearing input were they expecting? Was it a genuine effort to accept public comment?
I suppose we should be thankful that they didn’t vote on something on which they were admittedly uninformed.
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8 comments:
Richard, could you please enlighten me (and, perhaps others) what this revolving LOAN fund is???
I'm bracing myself.
Is this Council making a foray into the BANKING and LOAN industry?
Oh, sweet pickles.
Say it ain't so.
I don't know either.
The whole point is that Council scheduled a public hearing on a subject that they
(a) didn't reasonably disclose to the public and
(b) didn't have any idea about themselves.
Ask your Council person what it's about, call the Borough Manager, come to the next Council Meeting.
I just saw the Council meeting on my VCR. It seemed to be a revolving loan for the Hankin Group to do work on the Foundry, but for what, no one really knew.
Our new Borough Manager admitted that the Hankin Group didn't really need the loan from the Borough and he wanted complete discretion on what interest rate to charge because he felt that this started a "relationship" with the Hankin Group to prove that we (the Borough) liked them.
I don't even begin to understand it.
Start here on page 40.
http://www.newpa.com/download.aspx?id=77
The state will give a municipality 33% of what a private developer puts into making improvements on an "anchor building". So in effect money goes from the state to the community to the developer. The municipality (we) has to make the application for the money on behalf of the developer (Hankin) of a building of significance to the community (the foundry). The 33% of project costs are then loaned to the developer, paid back from the developer to the municipality. Then the murky part begins: "After the building is rehabbed and the money is paid back, the city will again use the cash to establish a new revolving loan fund for additional projects."
I thought borough manager Krack did a pretty good job of explaining it. However, I don't think he was in on the grant process. This type of confusion is one more reason to think long and hard about grant-writing responsibilities. This is something he is perfectly capable of initiating and shepherding. We should trust him here and make sure that is the point man for grants, especially those which are legally outside of the expiring 5 year main streets program.
Thanks for the info and your help.
Maybe you can convince some of our Council Members to download and read the "Growing Smarter" state publication to which you refer.
Consider a paragraph from the report on a local insurance salesman's words and our borough council president on the mid-July council meeting in the Phoenix
"You're the first [funding source] that we've asked, you're probably the biggest share of the pie. Other potential funders want to know about the level of a municipality's commitment." Council President Henry Wagner agreed. He said that, in a conversation about the Foundry, officials at the Hankin Group asked, "'What is the Borough's commitment to the CDC?' Understandably, they want to know what it is," Wagner said."
Well, you're darn right a representative of the Hankin group wants to know that. Their asking the borough for a $250,00 loan ( to help them with a $750,000 investment) which can only be gotten through authority of the borough and they've got this guy from an expiring Main Streets program talking to them with absolute zip actual legal authority to get them their quarter of a million dollars. Wouldn't you want to know what the heck was going on here if you wanted to get your money and you were told to talk to this intermediary? These are busy, truly professional people who run a class act. They read the paper. They know the history of the volatile relationships and unpredictable and unprofessional behavior we've seen.
why would the hankin group ever want to deal with a guy like the directors of the cdc when they have the clout and access to deal with not only the borough manager, but the governor of pennsylvania on down.
Why?
How much CASH (other than BCs Salary) has the CDC put into Phoenixville?
Compare that to the other real development going on in phoenixville, i.e. Hospital , Franklin Commons, Northridge, Molly Maguires, PJ Ryans, Iron Hill, 101 Bridge, etc, etc.
Hmm! Some of you people seem to be real tied in with what goes on with the Hankin Group. Or maybe you're just making it up? Lets get one thing clear here: the Hankin Group DOESN'T need a $250,000 loan from Pville. Thats for sure.
And why would any large group want to deal with BC? Because the guy knows how to raise money for things he wants or needs. How many people do you know that have that unique skill set? No one on council sure possesses that skill nor do any of you blog folks - that I can assure you. Have a nice day folks!
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