What do you do when you’re a municipality with more good ideas and projects than you can fund with your budget? You flex your fiscal responsibility muscle and get creative with grants.
Media is an extremely active borough when it comes to projects, planning and improvements. In order to stretch its budget, the borough has cleverly sought out – and been awarded – grants from regional grant-makers to fund all types of projects, either in part or in their entirety.
Improvements made possible through grants come in all shapes and sizes, but they add up to significant investment in the community. In recent years, regional grant makers have awarded Media Borough over $3.8 million in grants allowing the borough to move forward with projects such as:
- Acquiring land and development of the 5th & Broomall Park
- Installation of native plantings in Veterans Square Garden
- Adoption of energy-efficient measures (see below)
- Development of the Stormwater Master Plan
- Creation of the Wayfinding Plan
- Renovation of Houtman Park
- Connecting the Network—filling in gaps in our sidewalk system with the installation of seven sidewalk locations
- Funding in support of recycling programs such as residential pick up and composting
- Creation of the Economic Development Strategy and Plan
- Launch of the Traffic Calming Study and Plan
- Developing an Open Space Plan
Grants not only enable Media to make improvements without covering the full cost, but they also position the borough to realize ongoing cost savings. Energy efficiency grants have funded motion-sensor lights, programmable thermostats and conversion to LED and other energy-saving lighting in multiple locations (municipal garage, street lamps, Borough Hall). These sustainability measures– funded by grants– will result in cost savings to the borough totaling more than $400,000 over 10 years.
As the borough heads into 2020, new ideas and grant requests are being generated at a purposeful clip. To keep tabs on the many initiatives the borough is pursuing (and the grants that fund them), visit https://mediaborough.com/planning.