Wednesday morning, the Indiana County Commissioners approved a contract concerning a homeless shelter in the county, but the contract is not for as much as was originally requested.
The Commissioners entered into an 18-month agreement with the state Department of Community and Economic Development. The agreement will help ICCAP’s Pathways Homeless Shelter in Black Lick and provide funds for rapid re-housing assistance and services, data collection and entry, and administrative expenses. The original request was for $266,508, but because of statewide requests, DCED reduced the award to $173,000, which wipes out the request for operational assistance. The commissioners said that they will find a way to make up the $79,016 needed to help keep the shelter going. Commissioners Chairman Mike Baker said that the shelter’s work is very important to the county, and it was too important to let it fall by the wayside. How the county will make up that money will be announced in the next few weeks.
In other business, the commissioners approved the final ordinance in their re-financing plan on six outstanding loans. The plan will lock in the loans at lower rates and help speed up the repayment process, and is expected to save the county a lot of money over the next few years.
