Curwensville council hears about strategic management planning program | News

CURWENSVILLE — Curwensville Borough Council will consider joining the state Department of Community and Economic Development’s strategic management planning program.

At council’s recent meeting, DCED’s local policy specialist Terri Cunkle explained details of the proactive program and told council how it could benefit the borough and its future finances.

“DCED currently has 35 active SMPP participants,” Cunkle said. She said many of those are municipalities who are finding through the years their income is steadily growing smaller while expenses are growing larger.

“The beauty of the plan is it brings everything to light and there are recommendations for action based on the professional opinion of a consultant from outside of the municipality,” Cunkle said.

According to information on DCED’s website, the SMPP provides matching grant funds to assist municipalities experiencing fiscal difficulties to develop comprehensive multi-year financial plans and establish short- and long-term financial goals and objectives.

If the borough is accepted into the program, it would choose a consultant after sending out requests for proposals from a list of consultants provided by DCED.

Once the borough receives approval and chooses a consultant, the consultant will then begin financial audits of all departments and operations, meeting with each department head to discuss procedures and needs. They would also determine financial trends projecting future revenue and expenses, economic and demographic tendencies so that municipal government members can understand their futures and take action to counteract any negative trends.

This would take approximately four to six months to complete, the program’s information noted.

A draft plan report would be submitted to elected officials for review and approval. A final report would be created, which would be presented at a public meeting. The plan would identify three to five top priorities for the municipality.

A multi-year implementation plan would be created using information from the report. It would include grant opportunities for each recommendation from the final report and layout goals to be completed over a five-year period.

The final plan would be specific to the needs of the borough and critical issues the community faces and identify revenue enhancement.

It would provide up to $200,000 in funding, or 50 percent of the total costs for each project included in each phase of the plan.

“I am a good advocate for the program. I have seen it do many wonderful things,” she noted.