Beginning next year, Pennsylvania boroughs and townships that receive Community Development Block Grants may be turning over the paperwork involved to their counties.

The grants are federal money that is distributed through the state Department of Community and Economic Development. The grants are given to what are called "entitlement communities," municipalities of between 4,000 and 10,000 that have a certain number of low- to moderate-income residents, for projects that benefit the community.Now, each municipality handles its own paperwork, documentation and processing for the grants."DCED is in the process of determining whether it is appropriate and more efficient for CDBG funds for municipalities under 10,000 in population to be administered through the county. DCED is evaluating this potential change because it could greatly improve the monitoring of HUD funds by reducing the number of grantees and will help ensure consistency with state requirements," spokesman Steven Kratz said."A final determination of if and how this change will occur has not been made; however, if the change is implemented, the counties will receive additional funds to administer the program," he said.Currently, 52 municipalities have their counties handle the administration. The municipalities still decide which projects are needed and when. There are also 61 municipalities that still handle the administration themselves.Schuylkill County grant writer Gary Bender said his office would be administering the grants "for all of the entitlement communities, except for the city of Pottsville."There are 10 entitlement communities in Schuylkill. They are Butler Township, Mahanoy City, Minersville, Pine Grove Township, Schuylkill haven, Shenandoah, Tamaqua, Wayne Township and West Penn Township. Pottsville is also an entitlement community, but will continue to administer its own grants."DCED wants all reports to flow from one office," he said.That would mean a lot more work for his office."We would issue all compliance reports. We're going to have to look over bid specifications, we're going to have to look over labor compliance forms. We will take some administrative fee. Some municipalities use that to help fund secretaries, but the county would have to reimburse them out of that administration fee for that," he said."We've got a lot of work to do between now and when the applications start in 2015. We have to establish what the municipalities want to do and what they expect the county to do, and what we feel are the core responsibilities of the county," Bender said.In 2012, when Pine Grove and West Penn Townships became entitlement communities, they asked the county to handle the administration.On Wednesday, Schuylkill County commissioners approved a request by Tamaqua to have the county administer its grants.Tamaqua Borough Manager Kevin Steigerwalt said the change is a good one. Tamaqua is the largest of the entitlement communities."Our understanding from the state is that the county will handle the administration for all the entitlement communities starting with 2015 applications. We figured we'd start work ahead, and do it with 2014 applications," he said.The borough's CDBG consultant, Bill Delgesso, would like to retire, Steigerwalt said, "so we thought it would be a good time to make the transition."He expects the shift to be a smooth one."I think it will be a big help to our staff to have the extra help. I don't see any disadvantages. If anything, it will be a big help administratively," Steigerwalt said.Council discussed the matter at its past two meetings, and on Tuesday adopted a resolution to move the action through.Steigerwalt said he and borough community development officer Dan Schroeder, who learned about the coming change at a conference, expected to meet with county officials Thursday afternoon to iron out details of the shift."Over the last few months, the state sent several emails about the change. They wanted us to understand they want to get to the point where the county is the overseer for the projects," Schroeder said.He figured it would be better to make the transition before the county was swamped."When I saw the state was moving to have counties handle these projects, I thought, lets do this now, because next year it may be mandatory for everyone," he said.Schroeder believes the change will be beneficial."I think it will free us up so that we can do the work on the projects, and we won't have to spend all our time doing legal paperwork, which is a big chunk of the CDBG program. It's a real nightmare trying to keep track of what needs to go where and when, and not missing a deadline."Commissioners' Chairman Frank J. Staudenmeier is good with the move."Although it's coming under one umbrella, I don't think you'll see much of a change, other than that we'll have more oversight," he said. "The most important thing is that we'll work with the communities the money will going to."