Clarification from Wackers on CDBG Grants

From Michiel Wackers, Deputy Director of Planning, Conservation and Development


I thought I would provide some more information to clarify what occurred last night and the difficultly that the Citizens' Advisory Committee faces each year.

St. Vincent DePaul's Amazing Grace food pantry program was left of the recommendation list this year. It was left off largely due to the fact that the City has $61,000 to spend on Public Service types of projects and we received $250,000 in requests from 12 different public service applications. Applicants, rightly, are disappointed each year, but the CAC tries its best over a four month review process.

You mentioned in the article that the Russell Library and the Chamber's Worker Prep Program were left off the list. They were not, as you can see on the list below. Russell Library received the full amount they requested and the Chamber received an amount lower than they requested.

The issue before the council was whether the amount recommended for the Chamber was sufficient for next year's program. The council felt it was not and sent it back to committee to find any solutions along with seeing if St. Vincent's could be funded.

Luckily this year Middletown received $110,000 in CDBG-Stimulus funds. Out of this $16,500 can be used for public service projects. I feel pretty confident that we can get to where the council and applicants want to be for funding with out having to drastic cuts to the current recommendations.

This issue in allocating the $16,500 in stimulus funding is what are the rules attached to it. US Dept of HUD has not release those rules yet. HUD is expected to do so shortly.

Here is the list of recommendations from last night's meeting:

Organization/Program Grant Amount

-- Literacy Volunteers of Central Connecticut/Parent Tutoring $ 1,000 (public service)

-- Russell Library/Job and Career Services $ 15,000 (public service)

-- Middlesex Business and Industry (Chamber) Foundation/Worker Prep Program $ 8,000 (public service)

-- Green Street Arts Center/After School Program $ 15,000 (public service)

-- North End Action Team/Homeownership and Foreclosure Counseling $ 15,000 (public service)

-- Oddfellows Playhouse/At-Risk Youth Troupes $ 5,000 (public service)

-- Shiloh Christian Church/Adventures in Learning $ 2,000

-- Godfrey Library/Handicapped Accessibility $ 35,000

-- Mercy Housing/Shepherd Home Improvements $ 36,515

-- CHC, Friends of McCarthy Park/McCarthy Park Improvements $ 14,485

-- The Connection Inc./Eddy Shelter Security $ 5,000

-- Middletown Police Department/North End Security Cameras $ 30,000

-- City of Middletown/Section 108 Loan Payments $ 45,000

-- City of Middletown/Code Enforcement $100,000

-- City of Middletown/Program Administration $ 80,000

Jennifer Alexander also did some great reporting on the CDBG decision process with the Citizens' Advisory Committee

http://middletowneyenews.blogspot.com/2009/04/cdbg-old-school-stimulus.html

http://middletowneyenews.blogspot.com/2009/04/giving-out-grants-cdbg-part-two.html