By Brian X. McCrone
A $4.9
million public garden at the Free Library of Philadelphia? Not likely.
What
about $5.8 million for new trails along the Wissahickon Creek?
Those
projects and more than 60 others through the five-county Greater Philadelphia
area are in peril — or at least, will be scaled down — following
state legislation introduced last week that would severely diminish the amount
of money matched by the state for local preservation projects and open space
acquisitions.
More than
$60 million for Philadelphia
projects alone could lose some $15 million in state help over the next year.
The
Senate would redirect more than half of the annual $56 million Keystone Fund
— established in the early 1990s as a way to supplement dollar-for-dollar
local preservation efforts — toward hazardous site cleanup throughout Pennsylvania.
“If
this gets passed during this budget discussion, we’ll be wondering,
‘How did we just allow the largest cut in state history to
happen?’” said PennEnvironment Director David Masur.
State
officials with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources are also
disappointed that money is being diverted from one program to another.
“There
wouldn’t be enough money for our community partnership grant
program,” said DCNR spokeswoman Kris Novak. “We do open space
protections, trailway improvements. So we wouldn’t have as much money to
do those.”
