SUGARCREEK BOROUGH, Pa. (EYT) –
A sidewalk connecting Franklin to Sugarcreek Borough along Route 8 might be one step closer to reality.

Toward the end of Wednesday’s Sugarcreek Borough Council meeting, Councilman John McClelland reported to the rest of the council that a committee comprised of Councilman Larry Baughman, Borough Manager Joe Sporer, and himself had recently met with the Venango County Planning Commission regarding the sidewalk.

“We discussed the need to get people off the road — the ability to walk into the borough and visit businesses, and the ability to stimulate development,” McClelland said. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It would be funded entirely by grants, and the county is willing to do the application and have ownership of it with us helping with some of the maintenance costs.”

According to Venango County Commissioner Albert “Chip” Abramovic, who was in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting, the county can apply for a roughly $2 million grant from PennDOT that would pay for the construction of the sidewalk. A roughly $250,000.00 engineering study was done by PennDOT on the possibility of a sidewalk constructed a couple of years ago.

“We want this project to really work,” Abramovic said. “If we don’t take advantage of the money, we may never get it again. It’s only a matter of time before a life is lost on that stretch.”

Council President Bogan Goughler, who hinted at being against the project at the last council meeting in mid-August, said he believed that the council needed to continue talking about the project.

Abramovic said that county solicitor Richard Winkler had drawn up a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the borough and the county Wednesday afternoon.

Baughman said he had a concern about part of the MOU.

“I thought we were putting in it that if the borough needed to do winter maintenance on the sidewalk that we would bill the county,” Baughman said. “But, this says we would have to make a contribution.”

Abramovic said the MoU was just a starting point for negotiations and that it could be talked about.

“It’s a draft,” McClelland said. “Our solicitor (Brian Spaid) needed to review it, and we are open to suggestion. There may be a little bit of negotiating.”

McClelland said Emily Donaldson, the Deputy Director of the Venango County Planning Commission, was going to move forward with applying for the grant but needed either resolution from Sugarcreek Borough or a letter from the borough stating what the benefit for the sidewalk would be.

“It doesn’t bind us to anything,” McClelland said.

McClelland said because the grant deadline is two days after the next council meeting on September 20, he thought a letter was a more reasonable approach. He said that Baughman, Sporer, and he could draft the letter, and the rest of council agreed that would be okay.

“I want to commend the commissioners for this,” McClelland said. “I’ve seen for a long time the need for this. It’s good to see the commissioners in agreement. I trust we will all see the benefit this will provide.”

See related story: Sugarcreek Borough Gets Complaint About Tree Damage on Resident’s Property

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business the council: