Clean Communities grants heading for the scrap heap Borough officials learn of drastic cuts, probable elimination of program

Staff Writer

By john burton

Clean Communities grants heading for the scrap heap
Borough officials learn of drastic cuts, probable elimination of program

SHREWSBURY — It may not have been a lot of money, but it helped keep the borough clean.

At this week’s Borough Council meeting Monday, Mayor Emilia M. Siciliano announced she received a letter from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection stating that grants to municipalities for an anti-litter program would be substantially cut.

This year the borough received a $5,002 grant from the DEP’s Clean Communities fund. For the coming year, that amount will be slashed to $715.02, Siciliano said.

According to the letter she received from DEP Commissioner Robert C. Shinn Jr., the fund was allowed to expire, or "sunset," by the state Legislature.

As it stands, the pending bill to continue the Clean Communities Program has not been posted for a vote, and the current voting session is quickly coming to a close. Should the program not be reauthorized, the borough can expect to get no funding in 2003, according to Shinn’s letter.

The borough has gotten the grant for about four or five years, and "the money for the Clean Communities program has been put to very good use," said Siciliano.

In the past, the money has been used to purchase litter baskets, to support educational programs, to pay for various park cleanups, and similar plans, the mayor explained.

Without the state funding, such projects will become the responsibility of local municipalities, she added.

"All the municipalities will be affected," Siciliano said.

In other matters, the mayor received another letter from the DEP inviting the borough to apply for Green Acres funding.

For the coming year, $120 million will be available to municipalities in the way of grants and very low interest loans from the Green Acres program.

That money is for conservation and preservation of open spaces for passive or active recreation, Siciliano said.

Applications are accepted all year, but approvals are made twice a year, Feb. 15 and Aug. 15, the mayor added.