Grove City's downtown revitalization project is showing that borough officials need a remedial course in communication.

The project, for which construction was to begin in May, has been put on hold indefinitely because officials didn't ascertain funding requirements before making plans for the project to begin this year. It's almost as if officials felt that by continuing to move toward construction without doing their homework, funding rules would adjust to meet the town's needs.

Unfortunately, the rules don't work that way.

At the borough council's Feb. 16 meeting — only about three months from the planned start of construction — members of the council learned that a glitch in expected funding might cause a $500,000 shortfall.

Actually, the problem isn't really a glitch. The rules were in place for borough officials to access. The officials simply did not devote the time and effort needed to ensure that all funding details were understood in a timely fashion.

Even more incredible was the disclosure on Feb. 16 that the board of directors of Grove City Revitalization Inc., a nonprofit organization set up to oversee fundraising for the $2.8 million project, had not been made aware of the funding snag prior to the meeting, even though Mayor Randy Riddle also serves on that group.

EG&G of Akron, Ohio, the firm hired to spearhead the revitalization project, also must assume a big part of the blame for the effort now being sidetracked. The company has been operating on the assumption that the downtown area would qualify as a slum and blighted area, which would allow the borough to use up to 30 percent of its annual Community Development Block Grant allocation. Trouble is, the company was late in learning the potentially expensive requirements tied to the slum-blighted area designation.

What EG&G has learned and acknowledged vitually at the last minute is that, for the community development money to be eligible for revitalization-project use, an inspection of all buildings in the project area would be necessary, and at least 25 percent of them would have to be determined to fit the slum or blighted classification.

But even if that 25 percent designation were achieved, that wouldn't ensure that other community development funds guidelines could be met anytime soon. Under the rules, as discussed at the Feb. 16 meeting, property owners would be required to fix problems that the inspections uncovered, and there is no guarantee all property owners could afford to make the needed repairs or renovations in time for the project to begin on time.

In fact, that would seen very unlikely, since the downtown business district is not booming in terms of profits.

Then there is borough manager Terry Farren's less-than-adequate performance amid the snafu. An article in the Feb. 19 edition of the Butler Eagle said Farren had known for several months that there were some concerns regarding the borough's eligibility to use the Community Development Block Grant money in question for the project. However, it was only during the week before the council meeting that Farren and his staff "involved themselves in the issue (and) . . . found out what the borough and property owners would have to do to qualify to use the grant."

All of the project bungling has put the borough in the position of having to consider possible ways to scale back the project so it will be financially feasible to accomplish something. How that would fare in terms of doing the work in 2006 remains to be seen.

All considered, it is logical to question whether, even now, borough officials have all the requirements straight in their minds to allow them to proceed in some way.

The project, which, as envisioned, would entail street resurfacing and installing new sidewalks and decorative landscaping, provided the prospect of sprucing up Broad Street between Erie and Main streets. But good intentions without actual construction aren't going to improve anything.

The situation is an embarrassing spectacle that could have been avoided if dialogue and other communication had been accorded proper priority — among all borough officials and via close contacts with EG&G.

Borough officials and EG&G must sit down and figure out a way to resolve this mess.

— J.R.K.