Grant to Help Alleviate Gaysport Flooding

The longtime victims of flood waters in Gaysport received good news with the announcement that the borough of Hollidaysburg had been awarded $690,000 in grant money for the Gaysport stormwater project.

Approval was given by Hollidaysburg Borough Council to use a portion of the grant money to purchase 7.8 acres of the Stowell Farm to construct a retention pond as part of the stormwater project. The original estimate of the cost was around $1million for the project. The final cost will be above that.

Borough Solicitor Nathan Karn said the match grant was always a two-thirds, one-third match grant and the borough would fund the difference.

The re-zoning meeting in which the borough council decided to keep the Stowell Farm zoned Traditional Neighborhood Development instead of R-2 (General Residential) halted the re-zoning request from Jeff Long Construction, which was looking to buy part of the Stowell Farm to construct 75 individual cottages for senior citizens and a retention pond for floodwater.

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