LEWISTOWN — The Lewistown Borough Council rejected Downtown Lewistown Inc. Executive Director Jim Zubler’s request for a letter of intent in support of designating Lewistown as a creative district on Monday.

According to a press release from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the arts council’s Pennsylvania Creative Industries launched the Pennsylvania Creative Districts program to support communities in elevating creative assets and strengthening local economies.

The press release stated that communities with the creative district designation receive up to $50,000 in grant funding per year for the five-year period they hold the designation.

Zubler shared that the letter of intent must be submitted by Friday, June 12, to begin consideration for the designation. He stated that Community Partnerships of Lewistown would start the application process with the letter of intent, but the council’s approval is needed.

Council members questioned who would make decisions about how the grant money is spent, with DLI and Community Partnerships as partners. Zubler stated that the organizations would act as a board of directors coming together to make decisions.

Council members also asked whether the application process would impose any cost on the borough.

Zubler added that the council did not have to contribute financially to the one-to-one match required for the grant because up to 50% of the match can be in-kind, according to the release.

Zubler said the grant money could be used to support local events, goose landings or other creative assets in the community.

In the absence of councilman Scott Gutshall, the council reached a 3-3 tie in the roll call vote on the motion to approve Zubler’s request for a letter of intent, with council Vice President Robert Barlett, council President Matthew Moore and councilman Larry Searer against the motion.

Following an executive session, Moore reminded the public that, because Mayor Deborah Bargo was absent from the meeting to break the tie and the letter was due before the council could advertise a special meeting to do so, the council would reconsider the vote on Zubler’s request.

In a 5-1 voice vote, Searer voted against Moore’s motion to add this reconsideration to the agenda.

Searer then motioned to reconsider Zubler’s request with no council members in support of the motion during a roll call vote.

Without the council’s support, the letter cannot be submitted by the Friday deadline.

More information regarding other business during the Monday council meeting will be available in a future edition of the Sentinel.