Main Street
Program
The Main Street Manager Component is a
five-year program designed to help a community's downtown economic development
effort through the establishment of a local organization dedicated to downtown
revitalization and the management of downtown revitalization efforts by hiring
a full-time professional downtown coordinator.
The Downtown Reinvestment and Anchor Building
components use business district strategies to support eligible commercial
related projects located within a central or neighborhood business district.
This program has been merged into the New Communities Program.
Elm Street Program
The Elm Street Component of the New
Communities Program will allow communities to integrate a Main Street or
downtown revitalization program with a neighborhood renewal strategy. The Elm
Street program is designed to provide assistance and resources to those mixed
use and residential areas in proximity to central business districts, to
further enhance the downtown area and to improve the viability of older
neighborhoods.
Transportation
Enhancement Program
Community Revitalization Program –
Promotes local initiatives to improve community and enhance local economic
conditions and/or business districts. It is suggested that applicants
request funding between $5,000 and $50,000.
Community Conservation Partnership
Program – Provides state and federal grant dollars to help fund
Community Recreation, Land Trusts, Rails-to-Trails, Rivers Conservation and
Recreational Trails projects. These components are combined into a yearly
application cycle and a single application format and process reducing
paperwork for the applicant.
PENNVEST- Municipalities,
authorities, and some private entities are eligible for drinking water and
wastewater project funding. Offers twenty year, and sometimes 30 year loans
to municipalities or authorities, and some private entities, at interest
rates below those which they would receive on the open market (generally
between one and five percent depending upon the borrower's financial
conditions). For communities extremely distressed financially, PENNVEST also
offers limited grants.
Rural Utilities Service (RUS) – The
Rural Utilities Service offers a number of programs. Several are briefly
described below:
Community Facilities –
Grants and Loans to develop essential rural community facilities in areas of
up to 20,000 in population. Funds may be used to construct, enlarge, or
improve community facilities for health care, public safety, and public
services. This can include costs to acquire land for a facility, pay
professional fees, or purchase operating equipment.
Water and Waste Disposal Loans and
Grants – Direct loans may be made to develop water and wastewater
systems, including solid waste disposal and storm drainage, in rural areas
and to cities and towns with a population of 10,000 or less. Priority will
be given to public entities, in areas with less than 5,500 people, to
restore a deteriorating water supply, or to improve, enlarge, or modify a
water facility or an inadequate waste facility. Preference will be given to
requests which involve the merging or small facilities and those serving
low-income communities. Grants may be given to reduce water and waste
disposal costs to a reasonable level for users of the system. Grants may be
made, in some instances, up to 75 percent of eligible project costs.
Eligible applicants are the same as for loans.
Keystone Historic Preservation
Grants-This grant promotes the preservation, restoration and rehabilitation
of historic resources which are listed in the National Register of Historic
Places and which is open to the public. Eligible applicants include local
governments, conservancies, historic preservation organizations, historic
societies, museums, and religious institutions.
