The 2008 presidential campaign may be long over, but its effects are still being felt in Millersville Borough.

A one-time state grant of $500,000 was received to help the borough pay for its $3.29 million municipal building, council learned Monday.

Ed Arnold, borough manager, said the money was received from the Governor's Budget Office in Harrisburg to help pay for new borough offices that opened in June 2007.

The borough applied for the funds in 2006, and its plea for financial help got a big boost in March 2008, when Gov. Ed Rendell accompanied then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on a campaign visit. Clinton was campaigning to win the state's April 22 Democratic primary.

"Gov. Rendell was there, and he asked if there was anything we might need," Millersville Mayor Richard Moriarty said Monday. "What I said was, 'Might the state have any extra money to help a poor college town?' And the governor said, 'Let's see what we can do.' "

A few weeks later, Moriarty said he got a call from the governor's office, and officials set up a meeting with the state Department of Community and Economic Development to get the process started.

"The governor understood that we are in a very special situation in Millersville because we have such a high number of tax-exempt properties in our borough," Moriarty said. Large parcels in the borough are owned by Millersville University and Penn Manor School District.

"This was a one-time supplement to help us pay for our borough building and also to offset the loss of taxes," Moriarty said.

The need for a new borough office building had been under discussion since 2004, when Millersville realized that its headquarters in a former dentist's office at 10 Colonial Ave. did not meet requirements of the 1996 Americans With Disabilities Act.

The new borough building, at 100 Municipal Drive, places all government services in a wheelchair-accessible building that also serves as a community meeting place.

The new building, according to published reports, was financed by borough savings and a $2.7 million loan in 2005 from an eastern Pennsylvania-based trust pool known as the Delaware Valley Regional Finance Authority.

The $500,000 grant, Arnold said, is coming from the budget office's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, which is used for civic construction projects and the acquisition of cultural, economic or historical resources.

"We expect to get the money within three or so months, and, once we have the funds in hand, they will go toward paying off our general contracting costs," Arnold said. "Once that's paid off … everything relating to the building is taken care of. With this money, the matter is now closed."

Because the borough will become free of debt for the borough building, Arnold said, the finance committee will discuss what to do with the sudden windfall. The borough could place the money in an interest-bearing account to generate more income for government needs.

"After we receive the funds, we will have to go through a state audit to make sure that the money was spent properly," Arnold said, "but we anticipate clear sailing."

For more information about the state grant or to make suggestions about how Millersville could best spend — or save — its anticipated surplus, call the Millersville Borough Office at 872-4645.