Every time we elect a new governor, programs are tailored to meet the goals of the administration. I have dealt with the Keystone Communities in a previous column. The long and the short of that article was that there would not be any “new” Main Street or Elm Street programs awarded with the new administration. Communities have an opportunity to become a Keystone Community, but they have to pay the administrative costs by providing at least a 60 percent of a full time employee to carry out mission.

The nuts and bolts of the dual classification of Main Street and a Keystone Community is kind of tricky, because in some ways it is better to be a main street program— but keystone communities get a $50,000 implementation grant (not salary money). It will depend on the individual town as to what will be better option for that town. There are many nuances in the dual funding model.

It would behoove communities that have an assessment district to become a keystone community. Assessment districts have a dedicated funding stream that will enable the community to fulfill the requirement that the community pay the administrative costs for the program. It is perfect for a town like Pottstown, which already has a dedicated funding stream through assessments paid to Pottstown Downtown Improvement District Authority (PDIDA).

In the Keystone program, there is no real match for the community. In a Keystone Community, you could have a grant program for facades in the downtown, for which the building owner or the merchant pays the match. There are also grants available to the residents in a zone to be determined through a planning process.

The resident façade/rehab program has to be matched by the resident by 10 percent. We did a program in Phoenixville that gave $5000.00 to residents and they had to put up $500.00 as the match. A keystone community could have not only commercial but also residential grants.

The funding for a Keystone Community is flexible and is based upon a plan that would need to be developed. I personally like the community development corporation as a vehicle for the keystone community. I believe that the community should have an organized housing effort as well commercial development effort. I always run them concurrently when I worked on main streets.

There can be a borough or a city employee as the manager as long as 60 percent of the time they are doing keystone community activities. This is directly opposite previous administrations. No one wanted to see the borough or the city use the program to pay for an existing employee. So that is a big change in the program.

But now . . . the beauty of the program. You do not need to be any of these designations to get the grant. Everyone is eligible. This means maybe a community wants to take the stance that they do not want to be part of all this hocus pocus and just wants to have a grant. A community can do just that and take 10 percent administrative on the grant.

What makes all this possible is a plan. They want everyone to get together and come up with a plan with total community buy-in. That means getting everyone on the same page. Putting the goals and objectives into a narrative and executing the plan. This means even if you do not want to be part of the organized process you can do it yourself and get support of grants to accomplish the task.

It is tough to make the call for a community but it is fair to say a community has a number of choices. Some communities have talented natives that can give back to their borough or city and they can work to achieve the goal. Other communities like to have that solid professional, if there is such a thing.

My review on the changes in the program is that it is a good attempt. It’s probably not what I would do, but it is a fair program in that is inclusive, as long as you develop a plan and have a thoughtful approach. All grants will be judged on merit and for organizations; “survival of the fittest” will be the code phrase.