Construction was to have started today on the Elizabethtown Train Station, but the budget fiasco in Harrisburg delayed the project.
The reason, according to Borough Manager Pete Whipple, is that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is administering the federal stimulus money. And since there is no state budget, PennDOT will not release any of the money, which will reimburse Elizabethtown for the work on the train station.
Because the borough has taken out a loan for the project, the money is available, and Whipple told Borough Council that he even told PennDOT the borough would pay and wait for reimbursement. But without a signed reimbursement agreement, he said, PennDOT did not want to go that route.
For the record, Borough Council is not upset with PennDOT. As with residents across the Commonwealth, we can't believe our Legislature can't come to an agreement and, in turn, get a project that will provide jobs and economic development on track.
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