Clarion County commissioners on Tuesday awarded liquid fuels aid for 2021 projects in the county.
The total amount the county was able to award was $113,950. The money is collected on the tax levied on gasoline and diesel fuel.
The tax is collected by the state and returned to counties.
“We had requests from 14 municipalities for projects totaling $672,694,” said Commissioner Ed Heasley. “I think we did a good job allocating the funds. There is never enough money to fund all of the requests.”
“The county looked back over the requests from previous years to see who has received funding in the past,” Heasley added. “We try to maximize the amount of the money we have to work with. We couldn’t fund half of the requests we received. Some of the municipalities request $70,000 or $80,000 for one project and if you fund that one project everyone else is done.”
The allocations were awarded to New Bethlehem Borough, $27,000 for paving projects; Sligo Borough, $8,450 for drain inspection, cleaning and repairs; Strattanville Borough, $20,000 for street paving and drainage project; Farmington Township, $23,000 for road day lighting project (trimming of over-burden to allow daylight to help melt ice); Beaver Township, $9,000 for Culbertson Road box culvert and paving project; Highland Township, $6,500 for daylight on Bigley Drive; and Piney Township, $20,000 for seal coating and asphalt binder project.
In other business Tuesday, Jeff Smathers, director of the county’s Department of Public Safety, clarified the relationship between the county’s 9-1-1 emergency call center and Clarion University.
The agreement approved by the commissioners Tuesday allows Clarion County 9-1-1 emergency dispatch to provide the same service to Clarion University for 48 hours a week, usually on weekends.
Smathers said wireline and wireless calls will continue to be routed to the university’s 9-1-1 center. Smathers said if someone calls 9-1-1 from the university the call will go to the county’s 9-1-1 center.
Smathers said if a call is placed to the university’s center through its dedicated line, Clarion University police will be dispatched. He said Clarion Borough police and university police often back up each other, and he added that Clarion state police are also on the call list.
Smathers said he has tested the lines and any call placed to the university center when it is closed will automatically be routed to Clarion 9-1-1.
The university will pay the county $15,000 annually for the service, and the money will go directly into the 9-1-1 account.
Commissioners also announced Tuesday there will be no in-person meetings in the county through the end of the year. Meetings will be held via Zoom.