Warren County Commissioners are helping Sheffield Township pay for a $1.4 million project on the Saybrook Road bridge.

Commissioners approved a $50,000 request from Sheffield Township supervisors to use Act 13 funding for the bridge project. The bridge was closed Thursday for planned maintenance, but a bigger project is needed.

“This one is dealing with the bridge fund that the county receives, which is separate from the greenways and open space,” said Commissioner Dan Glotz. “These dollars can be used only for addressing structurally deficient bridges. Sheffield Township has come to us requesting $50,000 for help with the Saybrook Road Bridge. That bridge is in dire need of repair and replacement and we do have the funding available for that particular project..

In July, according to minutes from the July 11 Sheffield Township supervisors meeting, township officials were told a replacement of the bridge abutments and deck would be needed for long term repair. A bridge inspector provided the township with temporary corrections for passing the inspections in the meantime of placing gravel or concrete under the bridge’s I-Beam so no space is visible. The engineer is working on the plan to submit with the 2025 DCED Multimodal grant application for bridge replacement.

Commissioners also held a public hearing to approve changing the county’s 2024 Community Development Block Grant budget. County officials want to reallocate about $23,000 from the CDBG budget allocated for grant administration and use it instead to help pay for a countywide housing study along with $40,000 from the county’s general fund and $20,000 in program funding from Warren Worx.

“It also has the added benefit of pushing more of our money out of this building into projects,” said Josh Cotton, county grant writer. “The housing study will obviously have a bearing on how we handle CDBG funding.”

Cotton also discussed a grant application that the commissioners approved for a Main Street Matters grant. The program. The Main Street Matters program is designed to support downtown cores and surrounding neighborhoods with tools to create healthy, vibrant, and welcoming communities. Funding is available to support revitalization efforts in planning, business support, aesthetic improvements, and the increase of safety and security.

“This is a joint project with the chamber and Warren Works,” Cotton said. “They’re going to provide the 25% match. Our total project cost is $50,000. What we’re going after is planning dollars

to develop downtown plans for Sugar Grove and Sheffield. It’s part of a bigger initiative, this is one step of.

“This would be more like a regional main street program for those smaller communities,” Glotz said.

“That’s the bigger target,” Cotton said. “To get to that bigger target, which would provide us funding, we have to have that planning piece done.”

Two additional Act 13 funding requests were also approved. One is a $25,000 request for the county Bike-Hike trail that has been discussed often in recent commissioner meetings. The county Bike-Hike trail is a paved “Rails to Trails” that runs along the Conewango Creek and Route 62 between Warren and North Warren where the former DAV&P Railroad traveled. The route includes the original train station that was converted into a restaurant and foundations from oil refineries dating back to the oil boom in Warren County. The project will address dozens of cracks in the trail, and asphalt overlay the entire 2.65-mile length of the trail, according to a previously approved grant request.

“”This is a project that is long overdue with the rehab of the existing three miles of trail,” Glotz said.

A second request is for $500 to help pay the costs of the upcoming river cleanup and is a yearly request from cleanup organizers.

Lastly, the commissioners approved repurposing money from a prior project to repair the county courthouse roof to pay for eight painting restorations by Buffalo Architectural Castings. The second contract with Buffalo Architectural Castings will be for $14,720. It was approved unanimously by the commissioners.

“We were significantly under project cost,” Cotton said. “So, we’re looking at a second contract with them to restore the paintings of the judges that go around the room. Some of them are in excess of 125 years old. The frames are in decent shape.This is not grant eligible. We set aside a certain amount in (matching funds). We did not use it all because the project was under budget. So we’ll still be under that initial amount that was budgeted for the budget of the match.”