Published: January 13, 2009 08:50 am      

Community Development Block Grant process begins

Applications due Feb. 18 for nearly $1 million

CUMBERLAND — City organizations planning to request funds through the Community Development Block Grant program met Monday for the first technical assistance meeting.

Lee Borror, community development specialist, and Jay Oliver, community development manager, conducted the meeting to help inform the organizations about the timeline and requirements for applications.

Though unsure of the exact amount the city will receive, Borror and Oliver are basing the amount from last year, which was just under $1 million.

“It’s been held up in Congress with the change in administration, and they’re operating on continuing resolutions,” Oliver said. “And we’ve been figuring losing 2 to 3 percent a year during the last few years, but there’s also an issue of potential stimulus injections, so we do not have a consistent number at this point.”

A solicitation for requests went out last week with an application deadline of Feb. 18. There will also be two public hearings for organizations to present their proposals and allow Borror and Oliver to gain public input on the projects. The first public hearing will be Feb. 3 at the City Council meeting.

At Monday’s meeting, Borror handed out a packet of information and discussed requirements for applications.

Applicants should aim to fulfill one or more of the consolidated plan goals. These goals were created about four years ago to enhance housing, public housing, homeless and special populations, community development and economic development aspects within the city.

“The goals were developed regarding the needs for the city,” Borror said. “As far as applications go, you want to design your application to address one or more of these.”

Applicants must also address one of three national objectives, which are benefiting low/moderate income clientele, blight removal, or an urgent, unfundable, immediate need that occurred in the last 18 months.

Borror let the representatives know there were several obligations to the city as a subrecipient, including quarterly reports and audit re-quirements.

Oliver added there are a lot of public service requests, and these types of projects fall under a 20 percent cap.

“That would give approximately $150,000, if working with a $1 million grant, to work with for public service projects,” Oliver said.

Examples of public service projects include programs offered by Community Unity, dental assistance and emergency shelter assistance. Examples of rehabilitation projects include rehabilitating buildings and housing rehabilitation. Another project the CDBG funds is micro-enterprising, which helps small businesses get started and economic development assistance.

“Usually what we see in these meetings is somebody wanting to do some kind of building project or somebody wanting to do some kind of public service project,” Oliver said.

Organizations represented Monday included Friends Aware, Community Unity, Allegany County Public Schools Foundation, Allegany County Housing, Fort Recovery, Cumberland Neighborhood Housing Services/ NAILS Mission Program and Allegany County’s Human Resources and Development Commission. Darrell Lee Powell, fair housing specialist, also attended the meeting, as did Councilman Butch Hendershot.

“This is a project that the mayor and council love to participate in,” Hendershot said. “Most of our budget is pretty much set as far as the general fund budget. This is an opportunity where we can really affect our community, where we can really make a difference.”

Hendershot said the city has had the pleasure in supporting at-risk youth programs and also many housing programs through this grant.

“I think it’s fair to say we’ve seen the community im-proved,” he said, “and that’s the whole purpose of this federal grant, to try to help the kind of communities like Cumberland do a little better, get a little bit of a leg up.”

Another technical assistance meeting will be held Jan. 26 at 10 a.m. in City Hall. For more information, contact Borror at (301) 759-6437 or e-mail lborror@allconet.org.

Contact Tess Hill at thill@times-news.com.