Butler's 2020 Community Development Block Grant of $308,571 has been approved by the state and will be sent to City Council to be signed, according to the Butler Redevelopment Authority.

The Department of Community and Economic Development, which oversees the federally funded CDBG program, approved a contract for the grant, which must be signed before the funds are released, Veronica Walker, acting authority executive director, said Thursday.

The application seeks more than $223,000 for street reconstruction, $30,000 for housing rehabilitation and $55,542 for administration.

The streets listed in the application are Kaufman Drive, Donaghy Avenue, Maple Street, South Main Street and Wyoma Avenue. Part of Kaufman Drive was repaved in a previous CDBG project. The money sought in the 2020 application would pay for resurfacing the remainder of the street.

The part of Kaufman Drive paved under the previous contract is almost finished, but authority engineers are reviewing a $7,274 bill from Civil and Environmental Consultants Inc. for testing the soil removed from the road base for hazardous contamination before it was taken to a landfill for disposal. The tests showed the soil was not hazardous, Walker said.

The engineer is reviewing the bill, which is more than the contractor's original proposal of $6,595.

In other business, Walker said a candidate she interviewed for the part-time bookkeeper's job withdrew her application, and she will re-advertise the position. The job is two days per week and pays $15 per hour.

Walker said she would also contact Butler County Community College and Slippery Rock University to see if any students are looking for part-time work.