Jesse Ergott, NeighborWorks president & CEO, stands at the podium announcing the Beautiful Blocks progam coming to the City of Pittston for the spring of 2024 in a press conference held on Wednesday morning. In the background, left to right: Pittston City Mayor Michael Lombardo; Joe Chacke, City of Pittston City administrator and Office of Community Development, Redevelopment Authority & Housing Authority executive director; Paul Macknosky, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, regional director, and Bill desRosiers, Coterra Energy, External Affairs manager.
Jesse Ergott, NeighborWorks president & CEO, stands at the podium announcing the Beautiful Blocks progam coming to the City of Pittston for the spring of 2024 in a press conference held on Wednesday morning. In the background, left to right: Pittston City Mayor Michael Lombardo; Joe Chacke, City of Pittston City administrator and Office of Community Development, Redevelopment Authority & Housing Authority executive diretor; Paul Macknosky, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, regional director, and Bill desRosiers, Coterra Energy, External Affairs manager.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Program seeks to make neighborhoods better places to live
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Paul Macknosky, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development regional manager, spoke on behalf of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro during the Beautiful Blocks program to service the City of Pittston on Wednesday.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Jesse Ergott, NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania president & CEO, announced the Beautiful Blocks program coming to the City of Pittston in the spring of 2024.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
PITTSTON — The City of Pittston, in its continuing effort to improve housing and neighborhoods in the City, partnered with NeighborWorks of Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Deptartment of Community & Economic Development (DCED), and Coterra Energy in announcing the Beautiful Blocks program to improve homes in Pittston.
Beautiful Blocks is a home improvement program, which provides matching grants of up to $1,000 per property to groups of residents to help them make exterior improvements to their homes.
After five successful years of operations in the City of Scranton, together with three years of successful cycles in the City of Carbondale, NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania is pleased to partner with Pittston officials to make Beautiful Blocks available to residents of the City of Pittston. “The Beautiful Blocks Program has had a tremendous impact on neighborhoods in Scranton and Carbondale, and we look forward to expanding that impact into the sidewalks and lampposts. We are excited to be here in the City of Pittston to announce the program for 2024.”
City of Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo said he is also excited about the partnership with the City of Pittston,” Jesse Ergott, NeighborWorks president & CEO, said. “The Beautiful Blocks program seeks to make neighborhoods throughout Pittston more attractive places to live. Eligible exterior improvements include everything from painting and mailboxes to larger projects with NeighborWorks and the efforts of Ergott.
“We’ve always long admired the work at NeighborWorks, an all-star team doing great work,” Lombardo said. “I knew Jesse from 2007 or 2008 and every time I saw him subsequent to that, I said we needed to do something together. So here we are, it’s taken a couple of years; I’m super excited about it. Beautiful Blocks will compliment some of the strategies we have already deployed in the city to help in our neighborhoods.”
Paul Macknosky, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development regional director representing PA Gov. Josh Shapiro, commended NeighborWorks on the initiative at Pittston.
“With this particular program is the tip of the iceberg working to revitalize our communities, our neighborhoods, the places that we live, and really bring back the spirit of community by making things better for everybody,” Macknosky said. “It’s a great honor to partner with not only with the (Pittston) City and NeighborWorks, but with the funders that use this particular program to do great work for, not only for neighborhoods, but for populations and groups of people that need a little leg up and a little help.”
Grants will be awarded through a competitive application process. Applications will be judged on project impact, coordination, and the likelihood of neighbors continuing to work together in the future. Pre-applications will open in February 2023. Awards will be announced in June, with work taking place throughout the summer. Residents must match their grant awards dollar-for-dollar, unless they meet certain income guidelines.
Residents whose household income is less than 80% of the area median income are only required to provide a 20% match. For example, if a resident meets these income guidelines and receive the maximum $1,000 grant award, they must personally contribute at least $200 towards their project. Otherwise, participants must match the $1,000 grant with $1,000 of their own funds.
According to NeighborWorks, Beautiful Blocks to date in the cities of Carbondale and Scranton, 69 groups of neighbors participated, with more than $400,000 in grant funding awarded to 500 completed projects. This grant funding helped to leverage more than $1,000,000 in funds invested from participating homeowners.
Pittston residents interested in participating in the Beautiful Blocks program can learn more about the program, or if they wish to be placed on a contact list for the opening of pre-application, contact Gerard Hetman, NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Development Specialist, at 570-558-2490 or ghetman@nwnepa.org.