Officials promise help for low-income residents

NORRISTOWN >> Thursday’s commissioners meeting started off with multiple announcements from Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Valerie Arkoosh, including the end of of a state program for low-income residents.

“As part of our budget agreement, the program called General Assistance, which provides cash assistance — around $200 a month — to 267 individuals in Montgomery County, is scheduled to end Aug. 1,” Arkoosh said. “This is a program that affects 11,000 people across the state and 267 in Montgomery County. This program helps some of our poorest residents make ends meet ... we are extremely concerned that this program is going away.”

Arkoosh added that Montgomery County will be working with individuals affected by the program’s end.

Arkoosh said those individuals who need it may reach out to the county’s Community Connections Offices and Montgomery County Navicates.

Navicates are human service professionals who are familiar with local, county and state resources. The service is free to

Montgomery County residents. To learn more about the program call 610-2783522.

Additionally, Arkoosh announced the creation of two new social media accounts for the county.

Montgomery County has created an Instagram account: @Montco_Pa as well as a Nextdoor account: Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. Nextdoor is a social media network for neighborhoods that allows residents to keep up to date on what’s going on their neighborhoods.

Reports

Dan Farina with the Montgomery County Planning Commission gave a report to commissioners on the residential and non-residential construction going on throughout the county in 2018.

“Last year in the county we built over 2,600 housing units. This is a 31 percent jump from the prior year. It’s a pretty nice, healthy gain,” said Farina. “We’ve been having slight declines in the amount of single family detached that we’ve been producing in the last couple years while also having increases in the number of attached and multi-family. This past year we had a 72 percent jump in the number of multi-family units produced. Nine hundred of them alone were in Upper Merion Village of Valley Forge and an additional 300 were in the Moore Park in King of Prussia.” declaration for flooding.

“Flash flooding occurred at rush hour on Thursday July 11. Although it occurred all over the county, municipalities in the Western part of the county were most impacted. Green Lane was probably the worst site of individual homes and businesses damaged. This is the second major weather event we’ve had recently in the western part of the county,” said Tom Sullivan. “There’s a couple potential recovery opportunities we’re working on ... This is a multi-step process and this declaration is part of that step. We’re asking today just to ratify that declaration in accordance with the law so we can continue recovery efforts.”

Additionally, commissioners approved the Housing and Community Development 2019 annual Action Plan and amendments to the 2015 and 2017 Annual Action Plans.

Commissioners authorized a PennDOT reimbursement agreement for the county to receive $300,000 from the Federal Highway Administration for a transportation study program. No local matching funds are required under the agreement.

Commissioners also authorized the emergency procurement of electrical services for the county building and made appointments to the Montgomery County Conservation District and the Open Space Board.

Awards of contract

Fourteen awards of contract were announced at Thursday’s meeting:

• Contract award for Health & Human Services for IT programs and services to Infomatrix Corp. in the amount of $450,000.

• Contract award for Health & Human Services for a consultant to Public Consulting Group of Boston in the amount of $100,000.

• Contract award for Health & Human Services for support services to The Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania Inc. in the amount of $200,000.

• Contract award for Finance for software to OpenGov in the amount of $97,850.

• Contract award for ITS for software to SHI International Corporation in the amount of $28,769.45.

• Contract award for ITS for software to SHI International Corporation in the amount of $91,564.

• Contract award for the Law Library for printed materials to LexisNexis in the amount of $167, 029.

• Contract award for Assets & Infrastructure for inspection services to Pennoni Associates Inc. in the amount of $183, 369.36.

• Contract amendment for Assets & Infrastructure for architectural services to Norr (formerly Environetics) in the amount of $119,104.

• Contract renewal for ITS for fiber connectivity to Crown Castle Fiber in the amount of $240,000.

• Contract renewal for the Solicitor’s Office for legal services to multiple firms.

• Eight contract renewals for Health and Human Services

• Contract award for the Southeastern PA Regional Task Force for software and support to Forensic Mapping Solutions Inc. in the amount of $22,931.

• Contract award for the Southeastern PA Regional Task Force for equipment calibration to Federal Resources Supply in the amount of $60,000.