Streetscape grant will bring a new look to North Belle Vernon
By CHRISTINE HAINES
chaines@yourmvi.com
North Belle Vernon has received permission from the state Department of Community and Economic Development to utilize a $150,000 streetscape grant to give the downtown area a new look.
Last spring, the borough received the grant, which was going to be used for the first phase of a multi-year streetscape project including decorative lighting and other improvements to the downtown area as part of a $1.2 million project.
“We were going to put in handicapped cutouts and move the utilities. It was going to be a four- to five-year project,” said borough Councilman R.J. Sokol. “We were getting ready to put it out for bids when we got the letter that we didn’t get the funding for Phase II.”
Sokol said he didn’t want to leave the downtown looking like the beautification was only half done.
“It would have been like starting to paint your house a different color, get around 20% of the way done and then quit,” Sokol stated in an email.
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