Aldermen pursue grant for handicap bathrooms

Funding to add handicapped-assessable restrooms to the Booker T. Washington gym renovation project is being sought by the Philadelphia Mayor and Board of Alderman.

The board passed a resolution during their May 4 meeting to apply for a Community Development Block Grant where the city is pledging $25,000. 

The Booker T. renovation project is being funded with monies from a $1.2 million bond issue passed last year. 

If the city receives the grant, Mayor James A. Young said it could bring the city between $150,000 and $200,000. That would allow some of the bond issue monies to be used elsewhere.

“We don’t know exactly how much it will bring us,” Young said. “But it will allow us to spread the bond issue in other areas.”

The board passed the resolution on a 3-0 vote. Ward 3 Alderman Ronnie Jenkins and Ward 4 Alderman Cassie Henson Hickman were absent.

In other actions in the May 4 meeting, aldermen voted to:

• Approve the payment of $107 to Waggoner Engineer from the AWOS project;

• Set June 1 as a hearing date to decide what to do about unclean properties on Evergreen Street and Johnson Street;

• Approve the promotion of Lesa Eiland to chief deputy municipal clerk