Will $1 Million in County Assistance Help "Aging" Communities.

On Monday, Executive John Brown made it official. He announced a $1 million grants and loan program, which is designed to focus more on the aging boroughs than on Bethlehem and Easton. On the campaign trail, he had argued that "[w]e have to get away from Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, and focus on the rest of the community." His plan, called the Community Investment Partnership Program (CIPP), will actually give priority to applications from the smaller communities. At an economic development hearing last week, DCED Director Diane Donaher indicated that 80% of the grants and funds awarded will go to what she calls the "aging communities" in contrast to the urban core.

Funding Source for CIPP Program

The funding source for this grants and loan program is the $1.2 million in table games revenue that the County gets every year from the Sands Casino. This find has grown to over $3 million, and Executive John Brown has the right to spend it in whatever manner he pleases, so long as he declares that it is in the County's best interest. Council has been aware of this growing fund, but has taken no steps to date to assert its control over these purse strings  "I really think Council should look into controlling this money like any other revenue stream and have say over where it goes," Ken Kraft has cautioned. Right now, the only person who has that control is Executive John Brown.

Emphasis on Aging Communities

This grant and loan program is now available on the county's DCED webpage. Applications are due by the end of July, and include communities, businesses and nonprofits. They will be rated by DCED staff, who have already indicated that preference will be given to smaller communities.

The way Donaher put it sounds almost condescending.  She describes the County's boroughs as "aging communities that lack access to resources. .. They don't have staff. They don't have funding."  She told Council these older communities suffer from "blighted properties and failing infrastructure.".

She wants "to literally partner with them in their comprehensive plan and provide, not just funding, but technical assistance through our new staff and through the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission to help them become stable again."

This is because ""if the boroughs fail, we become unattractive."

Can County really assist smaller communities?

As much as I'm sure these smaller communities will be glad for any technical assistance the County can provide, is the County really up to it?  Donaher has hardly set any job creation records, except within her own department. It's unclear to me whether County government, which has demonstrated a complete inability to manage its own assets and resources, would provide any real benefit to a smaller community. In fact, this grants and loan program requires completed applications by July 31, without any regard for the municipalities that lack the technical proficiency to even accomplish that task.

Does anyone here think West Easton could take stock and apply for a grant or loan in time? Will these smaller communities even know about this program, to say nothing of the businesses in them?

This whole process seems designed to attract applications from municipalities that already know what they are doing, not problem communities like Walnutport, where the biggest business seems to be drug trafficking.

Council member Seth Vaughn was wowed by the proposal. "Sounds like you guys definitely have a plan here," he gushed. But Kraft was more cynical.

"I see no economic development going on," he complained. "I see little grants for changing the poster on the side of a building., painting windows, things that create no economic development whatsoever."

Architect of grant and loan program was a NIZ Planner

One of the biggest impediments to economic development in the Lehigh Valley right now is the Allentown NIZ, which has poached businesses from communities outside of Allentown.  Yet the architect for the crumbs being thrown at our aging boroughs is Mark Hartney, a former senior planner in Allentown who was one of the biggest NIZ cheerleaders. He told Council five different times that he's "excited" about this plan.  He can't wait to "get some of this money out into the street and in the communities, working where it should be working."

CIPP Nuts and bolts:

Here are the different kinds of grants and loan programs available:

1) Façade grants. - Despite the creation of little Potemkin villages with fake fronts that are called façade grants, I have yet to see any evidence that they actually work in any meaningful way.I know it gives everyone an excuse to use a fancy French word, so there is that plus. But just as John Brown allowed vacancies to pile up on his desk while he studies performance metrics, I'd like to see hard evidence that fake storefronts actually help a business.

2) Capital Improvement Grants - These could be for as much as $50,000 and require a dollar for dollar match. This makes sense for the most part. I like the idea of improved infrastructure. But it also includes something called "public art." That should be eliminated.

3) Operations grants.- This is a very slippery slope. It's one thing to provide the funding to repair a beautiful building, but the funding of actual operations, whether it is a downtown manager or code enforcement officer. There is no way to effectively monitor whether the County is getting its money's worth. This just leads to jobs for this or that person who knows someone in DCED.

4) Entrepreneurial and workforce development grants. - These typically wil be for $10,000 or less and include certification programs.

5) Business Boost loans. I see no detailed description of this on the County web page, leading me to wonder whether the loan recipients have alrady been identified.

6) Economic Reinvestment Loan. - This, too, contains no detailed description and really makes me wonder, especially since Donaher indicated that about haf of the funding is going for loans.