White Oak to seek grant for next phase of walking trail

Council also discussed a recent violation notice from the DEP.

White Oak Engineer Robert Roach provided updates to council last week about filing for grants for the Heritage Hills Walking Trail project and the borough’s recent DEP violation.

The borough is waiting on the contract for Phase 1 of the project, which is repaving the walking trail and involves a $50,000 grant, according to Roach.

“At this point, you will probably wait until the spring for public works to pave the first half of the walking trail, and then I know we discussed a little bit about doing a grant opportunity to pay for the second half of that walking trail, and the state’s LSA grant program is open right now until Nov. 30,” Roach said.

Council authorized its engineers with Penn E&R Inc. to prepare and file a grant application on behalf of the borough under the Local Share Account program for Phase 2 of the project.

A resolution would be required at the October meeting if borough officials choose to apply for the second grant, and Roach said there is no match required. He recommended applying for $60,000 — a little more than the first grant — just to be safe.

“There’s a $100 fee to the borough for applying, it’s online and we’ve done a lot of these,” Roach told council members. “It’s through the PA DCED Commonwealth Financing Authority online portal, and it’s a pretty simple thing. I don’t know if you would want to authorize us to apply for that grant now or obviously we have a couple more months to talk about it.”

The original $50,000 will be used for materials, a couple machinery items and paving half the walkway. The borough’s public works will do all the work in house, which saves a lot of money, and the second half will be paved with the second LSA grant.

“Traditionally, we have asked for multiple projects under LSA to kind of beef up the amount per se,” borough manager John Palyo said. “We present them as multiple different projects under one big umbrella. That way if they do a reduced amount, we can be flexible with what we select to move forward. So maybe we should consider some other things also.”

The borough received the first amount of grant money and will be able to pave the first half in spring or summer of 2025. The second grant would arrive sometime next year.

There were also discussions about a violation notice the borough received in August from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection regarding the borough’s composting facility.

The location of where the borough composts is at the old tennis courts at the White Oak Athletic Association complex located on Lower Heckman Road. According to Palyo, the borough isn’t being fined at this point for the violation.

Palyo said the borough’s engineers were able to come up with a solution by submitting and making revisions to the site’s pollution control plan, and the process has been more procedural than the content of the plan.

“We gave (a DEP representative) the form she asked for, and then we called her today and she said the one form we provided was not the correct form. It was specific for mining operations, so she resent the 43-page guidelines,” Roach said. “We tried to make it as simple as possible and we told her we didn’t want to put the site out of business because of too much effort, but she said per regulation you have to. So I’m going to whip up something as simple as possible for that.”

Council also approved a motion to consider entering into a two-year contract extension with Kevin Cain for Wildlife Control Services. The extension would cost the borough $850 per month through Dec. 31, 2026. Council members also voted on to enter into a two-year contract with XPEL Wildlife Control Services for the removal of dead deer from along borough roadways.

In other business:

• The borough’s second annual Oktoberfest celebration is set for Oct. 5 at the White Oak Athletic Association gymnasium. Tickets are available at the municipal building at a cost of $30 for adults and $15 for children (12 and under).

• With the Route 48 detour, council advised residents to beware of trucks taking a left turn from Lincoln Way onto State Street.

• Since mid-July, the borough has collected $39,000 in delinquent garbage payments with 40 active payment plans.

• Leaf pickup is Nov. 1.

• WOAA is taking basketball sign ups until Oct. 20.