Joseph Palubinsky wants anyone asking the Schuylkill County Redevelopment Authority for money to make their case to the board in person first.
The board member raised the point Wednesday at the authority’s meeting in the Hoffman Room at the Schuylkill County Courthouse. He did it while members were discussing what they called “the Frackville project.”
That’s developer Bill Metzinger’s plan to turn the former Holy Family School, at Line St. and Broad Mountain Ave., into eight one-bedroom apartments. Metzinger is seeking money from the authority for the project.
Board members referred to it only as the Frackville project, as they did at the authority’s October meeting. But in nearly the same breath, they clearly named another project before the authority: the Kowalonek project in Shenandoah.
That’s the Kowalonek family’s plan to turn the former Rite Aid store in Shenandoah into an expansion of its kielbasy business. In July, the project was awarded a $1.85 million state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant to convert the building into a food production site with a retail store.
The authority has money of its own to hand out. It received $1.5 million in funding from state Sen. Dave Argall, with $500,000 earmarked for demolition projects. Of the remaining $1 million, $250,000 is set aside for the Kowalonek project and the rest is unassigned, authority members said at their October meeting.
Solicitor Jack Price told the board that mortgage documents for the Kowalonek project are in hand and corporate paperwork is being gathered. But issues with PPL still haven’t been resolved, and that could push things past the board’s December meeting.
The Frackville project cleared a hurdle last month when the Schuylkill County Zoning Hearing Board approved a special exception to convert the school into apartments. Zoners also granted an exception to the requirement of two off-street parking spaces per apartment, on the condition that Metzinger find four parking spaces on the property.
Price said Metzinger’s attorney, Gretchen Sterns, told him they’d like to present the project to the authority at its December meeting. That will come after she gets the zoning board’s written decision.
Palubinsky then asked whether the authority had ever heard a presentation from the principal of the company behind the project. It hadn’t, members said.
“Just my own personal opinion, that might not be a bad idea,” Palubinsky said. “Anybody that’s submitting an application that we’re considering, I think we should entertain a presentation.”
Palubinsky said every applicant should have to make one. Board members unanimously agreed.
That application process is still being built. Schuylkill Community Action has been tasked with developing it.
“I will add that language to the actual application procedures,” said Dave Young, CEO of Schuylkill Community Action.
The nonprofit is taking on administrative services for the authority. That contract is still being finalized, and Price is working through inconsistent indemnification language in the documents.
Later in the meeting, board members agreed that applications need to be submitted to the Redevelopment Authority by the 15th of the month to be considered at the next meeting. The board may request more time depending on the size and scope of a project and its application.
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