SELINSGROVE — After more than eight years of waiting, Selinsgrove borough officials want to know when they will receive a more than $100,000 grant to establish an emergency access ramp on the Isle of Que.
The floodplain hazard mitigation plan funds are expected to come through the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority.
“It’s starting to become very questionable we will ever see that money,” said John Bickhart, borough manager, at a council meeting Monday night.
Asked about the issue on Tuesday, Snyder County Commissioner Richard “Bud” Bickhart said the grant was approved three years ago. If the project hasn’t moved forward, he said, “It’s Selinsgrove’s fault.”
After discussion on Tuesday, both John Bickhart and the commissioners said the whole issue apparently has been a misunderstanding.
“We didn’t know he (John Bickhart) was looking for something,” Commissioner Malcolm Derk said. “We can’t be expected to solve a problem until we know there is a problem.”
In fact, the commissioners did not know there was a problem until Mayor Pete Carroll approached them about the issue last week, Derk said.
“We want resolution,” Carroll said Tuesday. “It’s been over two years. Apparently, we don’t know who to get an answer from.”
On Monday, the Borough Council instructed John Bickhart to send a letter to the commissioners to find out just who is in charge.
Bickhart said he was approached in August by then-county Emergency Services Director Dave Hanig, who said the project was approved by the flood protection authority and that the commissioners had completed and approved an award acceptance. Hanig told him he would let him know once the money was received. However, Hanig was fired on Oct. 6.
According to Derk, the authority had approved approximately $137,000 for the Isle of Que project, but the commissioners had no hand in distributing the funds.
“We don’t have any money of theirs,” he said Tuesday. “If they think we have money and are holding them up, then that’s a problem.”
John Bickhart said he believed the project, which would install a driveway for residents of the Isle of Que to get off the island in the event of an emergency and improve an access for people coming onto the island, would cost $180,000 to $190,000.
The authority has indicated it wants to spend all of the money in the fund by the end of next year, Derk said.
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