Burns: $300,000 grant to repave Franklin Borough main roads
Potholes being tackled for first time in decades
Rep. Frank Burns May 20, 2024 | 11:39 AM
EBENSBURG, May 20 – Fulfilling his pledge to make sure small communities are not ignored, state Rep. Frank Burns has procured a $300,000 grant for tiny Franklin Borough to repave its three main roads for the first time in decades.
Burns, D-Cambria, said he’s in regular contact with one of the borough’s three council members, Sharon Lydic, and is committed to helping the 265-person enclave receive state funding.
“I told them places like Franklin Borough tend to be forgotten about. But I’m not going to let them be forgotten about,” Burns said. “I encourage the little municipalities to apply for this stuff, and help them apply, and thus they’re getting more money.”
Lydic said while some of the streetscape funding could be used to improve lighting and sidewalks, the primary goal is to repave pothole-strewn main roads – a long-overdue baseline improvement.
“My house was built in 1947 for my parents, and I cannot remember us having it resurfaced in my lifetime – and I’m 72,” Lydic said. “But I’m on a level street, with no potholes. The other ones, we fill in those holes every year. It’s just been a Band-Aid.”
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“I told them places like Franklin Borough tend to be forgotten about. But I’m not going to let them be forgotten about. I encourage the little municipalities to apply for this stuff, and help them apply, and thus they’re getting more money.” – State Rep Frank Burns.
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Lydic credited Burns as a catalyst for the project, starting with a grant-writing and application seminar offered to local municipalities at his Ebensburg office, an eye-opener she attended in her third year on council.
“We had no idea we could actually ask for grants – and get them,” Lydic said. “Frank had people there from DCED (Department of Community and Economic Development), the Department of Transportation, state agencies, that were pretty high up on the scale.
“They had booklets. We don’t have enough money for matching funds, but found out there were these LSA (Local Share Account) grants and those don’t need matching funds.”
Lydic said other grants subsequently obtained by Franklin Borough were for removing blighted houses, purchasing fire company equipment, and obtaining a brush hog for keeping the community clean.
“When you call Frank, he listens, he helps,” Lydic said. “He just doesn’t listen to big corporations. He listens.
“The $300,000 grant we just got, he called me the day it went through. He said, ‘You got it’ and I said, ‘Oh, thank you, Frank!’ He’s present, he’s there, he knows what’s going on.”