By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Feb. 6, 2012
Mayor David Kaptain and Councilman John Steffen will join the city administration this week in recommending to the Elgin City Council which programs and agencies should receive a portion of the city’s share of $695,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding for 2012-13.
Much is potentially at stake — 10 of the 12 applicants are social service agencies, yet the city’s grant funding has been reduced this year from $769,123 it received in 2011-12, and that funding had been reduced 16 percent from a year earlier. Yet all 12 applicants’ requests meet the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s requirements for the grant funding.
Complicating the city’s role is that is restricted by how much of the overall Community Development Block Grant funding it can use for public service projects. The city also is required to make the minimum grant award at least $25,000.
“The city staff, the Mayor (David Kaptain) and Councilman (John) Steffen already have gone through and filtered the applications, and they are presenting a spending plan,” Elgin management analyst Aaron Cosentino said late Monday afternoon. “Then this work session will allow others (on the council) to weigh in on it …”
The council held its first required public hearing Jan. 11 on the program. The city has received 12 applications totaling $849,000, about $154,000 less than the estimated sum the city expects to receive this year from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The staff memo to the council state’s the council’s list of selected projects will be subject to a 30-day public review and comment period from Feb. 12 through March 13. The City Council’s final public hearing on the grants is scheduled for March 21
After that hearing, the council is expected to adopt a resolution authorizing staff to submit the Annual Action Plan to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The applicants, the project name, amount requested and amount recommended are:
- City of Elgin, PNS Residential Rehabilitation Grant Program — $295,000 / $292,196
- City of Elgin, PNS CDBG Program Administration — $63,000 / $63,000
- YWCA of Elgin Architectural Services — $60,000 / $60,000
- Well Child Center HVAC Replacement-Phase 1 — $52,100 / $52,100
- The Larkin Center Roof and Driveway Replacement — $88,075 / $50,600
- PADS of Elgin Emergency Shelter Rental — $55,000 / $50,000
- Association for Individual Development Safety and Rehabilitation Improvements $40,104 / $40,104
- Renz Addiction Counseling Center Window Replacement Project — $33,000 / $33,000
- Senior Services Associates Rental Reimbursement — $32,844 / $29,000
- Wayside Cross Ministries Daytime Homeless Shelter Rental — $47,900 / $25,000
- NHS of the Fox Valley Housing Recovery Program — $42,000 / $0
- Feeding Greater Elgin Rental Reimbursement — $40,000 / $0
The staff report notes that as recommended, the funding breaks down to $528,000 (75.97 percent) spent on capital projects, $104,000 (14.96 percent) on service projects and $63,000 (9.06 percent) reimbursed to the city for its costs associated with administering the grant.
