The Schuylkill County Commissioners approved a grant application to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Multimodal Transportation Fund with the hope it can provide financial help with its proposed road repair project.

County administrator Gary Bender credited county engineer Lisa Mahall with discovering the availability of funds.

Should the grant be awarded to Schuylkill County, 70 percent of the road project’s cost, estimated at just over $1.4 million, would be paid for by the state, with the remaining cost covered by the county’s liquid fuels funds. Grant awards will be announced in the fall of 2019.

The project consists of a complete reconstruction of Airport Road, replacement of 3,800 feet of guard rails, adding storm drainage and repaving and line-painting of the Park & Ride area.

Commissioners’ Chairman George F. Halcovage Jr. hopes the state will consider the fact that one of PennDOT’s storage facilities is located on that road when it evaluates the grant.

“It is a very important and busy road,” said Mahall. “The airport runway expansion makes it even more important. There’s a lot of activity at the airport — Medevac flights, National Guard exercises, the LIU’s truck driving school — plus there are a lot of commuters who use the Park & Ride lot every day.”

Bender concurred.

“You don’t want to have a great facility like the airport and have a road leading up to it to be in disrepair.”

Should the county be awarded the grant, Mahall and Bender said work can begin in the spring of 2020.

The commissioners also approved $34,500 for the county’s Emergency Services Training Center. All three commissioners praised the training that the school provides.

In other business, the commissioners approved contracts for services with United Methodist Home for Children, Mechanicsburg, at $225 per diem; Berks Deaf & Hard of Hearing, Reading, for regular rate at $50 per hour, prime rate at $67 per hour, and after hours legal rate at $82 per hour; Perseus House, Erie, for shelter at $196.52 per diem, ITP at $264.67 per diem, and Florence Crittenton Mother/Baby program at $318.89 per diem; Keystone Adolescent Center, Greenville, for foster care at $75 per diem, male TLP at $143.25 per diem, and community-based group home at $63.90 per diem; George Junior Republic, Grove City, for drug and alcohol at $75.23 per diem, shelter care at $258.12 per diem, and intensive supervision unit at $310.82 per diem; Eison Court, Doylestown, for PATHS treatment program at $283.50 per diem, Easton Manor treatment program at $307.53 per diem, and Mathom residential program west side at $429.38 per diem; and Satellite Tracking of People LLC, to provide electronic monitoring services.

To begin its meeting, the commissioners read two proclamations.

The first honored the work of the Carbon Schuylkill Luzerne STEM Ecosystem in encouraging students to pursue studies and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The commissioners declared Nov. 8 as National STEM Day.

The commissioners also proclaimed the week of Oct. 23-31 as Red Ribbon Week in Schuylkill County. The proclamation honored the work of the county’s Drug and Alcohol program.