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12 The Authority | AUGUST 2023 F eature Cambria County Specific Projects - Redevelopment Authority of Cambria County By Renée K. Daly, Executive Director, Redevelopment Authority of Cambria County “Partnerships!” “Collaboration!” “Working together for the same goal!” We have all heard them. We have all used them. We have all been a part of them. And that’s because they work! They work because they allow us to leverage our dollars. They work because it takes a village to raise chil- dren, but also to see a project from start to finish. We need our networks, our co-workers, our boards and even our nay-sayers, because what we do is hard. The Redevelopment Authority of Cambria County (RACC) receives and manages millions of dollars in grant funding each year. Those grant dollars are used for street and sidewalk improvements, housing rehabilitation, sewer and waterline replacements, dilapidated structure demolitions, accessibility upgrades, brownfields testing and remediation, and services like job training for unemployed and underemployed residents, as well as providing food on the weekends to school-aged students. As like most of Pennsylvania’s county-wide rede- velopment authorities, we receive funding through the Pennsylvania De- partment of Community and Econom- ic Development’s Community Devel- opment Block Grant (CDBG), local Act 152 county-wide demolition program, and most recently the Whole-Home Repairs Program (WHRP) grant. CDBG funding is used throughout Cambria County to benefit low-in- come residents through projects that either directly benefit them or the neighborhood in which they live. Hill Alley Project Before After Before Hill Alley Sewer Project These CDBG funds are an easy way for municipalities and their municipal authorities to stretch the construction dollar since the neighborhood-wide projects are typically public projects like sidewalks and street improve- ments, or sewer and stormwater line replacements. The RACC doesn’t know all of the needs of each Cambria Coun- ty community or authority, so it is important that our partners relay their needs so we can confirm where we can help with funding or just simply be a liaison.