LIMERICK PA – A federal highway funding program, on which Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove (PA) townships are depending to help pay for improvements at the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422, got a new lease on life this week (Sept. 30, 2009) only hours before it was set to expire.

Congressional aproval of the SAFETEA-LU highway funding bill wil be short-lived if no action is taken beyond Oct. 31

Congress approved, and President Obama signed into law Wednesday, a continuing resolution that extends the “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act – A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU)” funding through Oct. 31 (2009), according to a legislative alert issued Thursday (Oct. 1, 2009) by the American Public Transportation Association.

The act pays for a wide variety of road and public transportation programs. Its interim funding is a stop-gap measure, because the House and Senate haven’t yet agreed on how much money can be spent, or on what, for a full-year of SAFETEA-LU allocations during fiscal 2010.

The transportation association’s alert further reported that action on a longer-term extension of the act was “possible in the coming days.”

Lower Pottsgrove congressman Charlie Dent, and Limerick congressman Jim Gerlach, both sit on the House committee that controls how SAFETEA-LU money is distributed.

SAFETEA-LU has been repeatedly mentioned by the Delta Development Group Inc., a Mechanicsburg PA legislative lobbying firm employed by Limerick, as one of the prime vehicles from which both townships could obtain money to cover what is estimated to be up to $25 million in costs for completion of future highway construction envisioned at the Sanatoga interchange.

Limerick is paying Delta Development $240,000 over two years for its lobbying expertise. Lower Pottsgrove earlier this year rejected similarly hiring Delta, deeming the firm too expensive.

SAFETEA-LU has already paid, in part, for improvements at 422′s Collegeville-Phoenixville (Route 29) interchange, where the new Providence Town Center shopping complex will open within two weeks. The first phase of that development features a Wegman’s supermarket, a Best Buy electronics store, L.A. Fitness, and many other retailers and restaurants.

Because the townships expect comparable commercial growth at the Sanatoga interchange, they signed an agreement in May (2009) to cooperate on a master plan for zoning, land use and development across their mutual border.

Delta representatives, during past meetings of the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners, have candidly said that – because local congressmen are involved – whatever money won for the work by one township likely would also be given to the other.

The joint agreement did not commit Lower Pottsgrove to any financial expenditures or decisions, township solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway pointedly noted.

It did not prohibit them, either. One commissioner has privately speculated that – should Delta succeed in winning SAFETEA-LU funds for both Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove to help solve their interchange traffic problems – Lower Pottsgrove might consider paying a portion of Limerick’s lobbying expenses.

Photo by Ed Brown via Wikimedia Commons

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