Over $19,000 in County Money Coming to Conshohocken

The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution that will bring roughly $19,000 to Conshohocken at its meeting on Thursday.

The grant comes as part of a countywide community revitalization program that will provide seven Montgomery municipalities with roughly $1.8 million for enhancement of public facilities.

According to the resolution, Conshohocken will receive $19,320 for improving the borough’s wayfinding, or directional, signage.

“Basically, wayfinding signs are directional, meant to show you where things are,” county planning section Chief Brian O’Leary said. “These are sings to point you to landmarks or attractions, like ‘Here’s where the parking is, here is where the train station is,’ signs to show the way.”

O’Leary said that each town in the program submits its own plan to the county for municipal improvement.

“Each town does a plan and list projects they are planning to do over time,” he said. “This is Conshohocken’s plan.”

According to the resolution, the project will begin with signs focused on connections between downtown and parking areas, the Schuylkill River trail, the train station and amenities along the waterfront. The borough will be responsible to maintain improvements to the signs on a regular basis, including landscaping and up-keeping duties.

The commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of passing the resolution, with Commissioner Bruce Castor submitting the lone nay vote, voting for only one of the 11 proposed improvements. He said his vote was motivated by financial concerns.

“[Our financial situation] has us with low cash reserves and higher debt,” he said. “I think these are good projects and good ideas, but I think we should delay them for a year, maybe two years, until the county recovers financially and then fund them.  I don’t have any objection to these projects, I just think we should delay them.”

Castor voted against all projects except a the proposed funding of a studio center street-scape project in Norristown, saying that the program's basis of funding was a loan, not a grant and that the county would recoup money on the project.

With the approval of the resolution from a county level, Conshohocken must agree to its terms before it will receive the funds for the signage.

The next Board of County Commissioners meeting is scheduled for July 20. 

The commissioners approved the following grants as part of the community revitalization program: