Lehigh County Awards Grants to Municipalities

Borough of Macungie, Lower Milford, Upper Milford, Alburtis to receive Lehigh County grants

MACUNGIE: Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham today announced the first grants awarded under the county’s newly-created Main Street Initiatives Fund and Regional Partnerships Fund.

 “We created these two new grant funds to help Lehigh County municipalities pay for needed improvements and to cover the upfront costs associated with savings that can be realized through regional cooperation,” said Cunningham.  “There is no better use of Lehigh County tax dollars than to give them back to our municipalities to pay for needed improvements.”

The Borough of Macungie received a $24,000 grant from Lehigh County’s Main Street Initiatives Fund.  The funds will be used in conjunction with federal Hometown Streets grant funds for streetscape planning efforts to include the downtown shopping district.

“This grant will help fund the planning process for our next Transportation Enhancement Grant which is for a Main Street Streetscape in our Town Center,” said Macungie Borough Manager, Chris Boehm.  “This streetscape plan continues the Borough Business Revitalization Program in which we are partnered with Lehigh County.  Borough Council is very pleased to receive assistance from the County through these funds.”

Lower and Upper Milford Townships and the Boroughs of Macungie and Alburtis also received $1,000 from Lehigh County’s Regional Partnerships Fund for the development of a board of appeals for Uniform Construction Code compliance.   

The Regional Partnerships and Main Street Initiatives Funds were proposed by Cunningham last year and adopted by the Board of Commissioners

to supplement municipalities’ community and economic development activities.   In the next few weeks, Lehigh County will announce $106,500 in community and economic development grants to municipalities.

The deadline for municipal applications for the next round of funding is May 31, and information for all of Lehigh County’s grants can be found on Lehigh County’s website at www.lehighcounty.org .