Addressing blight in Hagerstown: Rep. Trone meets with local leaders to create plan
Credit: WDVM, Katie Rhee
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (WDVM) — Blight or run-down structures is an ongoing issue in Hagerstown, and Congressmen David Trone paid a visit to the city for a meeting with community leaders about addressing the issue.
Congressman David Trone sat down with Hagerstown Mayor Emily Keller as well as other local leaders about creating a plan to use funding from Congress to carry out community-led projects.
The city of Hagerstown created a proposal for blight removal for the appropriately named Community Project Fund which aims to revitalize and restore structures across the city. Members of Congress submitted requests for Community Project Funding before the April 30th deadline. There was also a supplementary period between May 20th and June 4th to allow for additional requests and changes to existing requests after project lists included in President Biden’s budget were released.
“We have a lot of funding and we hopeful can make a big difference. But it’s going to take a community together,” Congressman Trone said. “And the great thing about it is when you get the housing stock, you’ve got a spirit for the whole community.”
Congressman Trone stated that one of the steps to enticing people to live in Hagerstown starts with removing blight around the city.
“We got to create Hagerstown as a good place for folks to come where they can find reasonable housing, affordable housing, and then they’re going to find the jobs here,” Congressman Trone said.
The city of Hagerstown is slated to receive $500,000 for this project.
