Cheltenham Township has decided to table a $1 million grant application for a new community center somewhere in the east side of Cheltenham.
“We’re going to withdraw this resolution. Staff has reviewed timelines and feels that there are a lot of things up in the air with respect to this proposal, so we wanted to table it and hold off for another year,” township manager Alyson Elliot said during the township’s Board of Commissioners meeting on Wednesday.
Commissioner Irv Brockington asked Elliot to elaborate on the decision, noting that “the east side of Cheltenham is, for me, code for the Rowland Community Center”, which received a $1 million check for improvements on November 1.
“There’s a number of proposals for that area. We don’t want to walk back what we’ve proposed. We’ll plan to walk through all the options and submit an application for next year,” Elliot said.
Later in the meeting, board president Matthew Areman elaborated further on the decision to hold off.
“This language in the resolution is sort of vague. The problem with submitting a vague grant application is that it usually gets declined. If we can make a decision on how we intend to deliver on our facilities’ promise, and we seek funding to accomplish that goal, we better be putting our best foot forward to get that funding,” Areman said. “Because we haven’t made a decision, the chances of success were less than normal. It didn’t make sense to submit something without clarity.”
Areman pointed out that no decision regarding the project or its future location has been made yet.
“Staff is in discussion with the developer at Melrose and is preparing a document that proposes something on that property. I would expect that the board is going to review that, we’re going to have community meetings as promised, and ultimately, we’re going to make a decision,” Areman said regarding the timeline of the project.
“We want to make sure that we have a very competitive application,” Elliot said.
In related news, a resolution was passed in support of LaMott Fire Company’s grant application for $1 million for the renovation and expansion of the station at 7600 Penrose Avenue in Elkins Park.
The full meeting can be found below:
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