The Altoona Water Authority is considering whether to retain a company that could help it obtain grants for projects.

Delta Development Group of Camp Hill would charge $4,000 a month on a contract that the authority could terminate at any time with 30 days’ notice, according to solicitor David Gaines, speaking at the most recent board meeting.

“They’re good at procuring money for authorities,” Gaines told the board, which could hire the group at the board’s next meeting. “They’re good at shaking the political coffers.”

Clients of the firm “sing its praises,” Gaines said.

Several years ago, the firm set up bus authority officials in the region with a lawmaker who earmarked $14 million for construction of a bus terminal, Gaines said.

Agents of the firm do much of their work by “walking the halls in Harrisburg” and other places where decisions are made that lead to grants, Gaines said.

The Altoona authority staff would like to see how it will go, said authority General Manager Mark Perry.

“It’s a way to help us procure free money,” Gaines said. “Four thousand dollars a month is a lot (to pay), but if it helps (the authority obtain) $100,000 or $1 million, it would more than pay for itself.”

A likely contract with the firm would run 16 months, which probably conforms with the typical grant cycle, according to officials.

A deal would be the equivalent of hiring a grant writer, suggested board member Jack Speece.

If the board approves a contract with Delta, the authority would provide the company with a list of potential capital projects, Perry said.

The company would then match grant programs with those projects, he said.

Board member Barb Kooman asked whether the slate of capital projects would constitute a “wish list.”

It’s a matter of priorities, as opposed to a wish list, Perry said.

There are projects that need done, though perhaps not immediately, officials said.

There are projects for which the authority has sought funding unsuccessfully, they said.

Delta might be able to help obtain the money to reclaim former strip mined land in the watershed and to renew the acid-

mine-drainage passive treatment systems above the Curve, according to Land Manager Katie Semelsburger. That could bring the authority closer to being able to divert water from Kittanning Run into the reservoirs below the Curve, she indicated.

Delta might also help get money for extending water and sewer lines into areas the authority currently doesn’t serve, or to procure equipment for water treatment, according to Water Operations Director Mike Bianconi. The authority has tried to obtain money for such purposes in-house, without success, Bianconi said.

The company might be able to help the authority obtain money for a water main project on Kingdom Street in Tipton, Bianconi said. The authority has applied for a Local Share Account grant for that project without success, and it has also tried “the political end,” also to no avail, Bianconi said.

The company might help get money for repair of the old brick sewer lines in some parts of the city, said Sewer Operations Director Brad Kelly. The authority has tried to obtain money for that purpose from Pennvest without success, Kelly said.

And Delta might help get money for an assessment of Plane 9 Dam, whose reservoir is currently out of use, because of leaks in the spillway, Perry said. The authority has been waiting for two years for a grant to do that assessment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he said. The assessment was to have been done by next month, he said.

Some grants require matches, Semelsberger said.

But a firm like Delta can help the authority obtain secondary grants to cover those match requirements, she said.

“(Delta) just may have resources we don’t have, through no fault of anyone here,” Gaines said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.