Block grants funds may be used for brownfield in Northville Township
Friday, December 26th, 2008From the Northville Record…
http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20081225/NEWS12/812250394/1029
Federal Community Development Block Grant funds may be used to help pay for the clean up of the former Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital property in Northville Township once the brownfield redevelopment plan for the land is finalized.
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Thelma Kubitsky, assistant township manager and finance director, explained to board members at the Dec. 18 public hearing on the grant funding that the money could be used for this purpose if it is placed in the grant funding budget and approved in a public hearing.
The board did approve the funding, which was budgeted at $50,000 a year, can be carried over a three-year period and be used in 2010 or 2011 as well as 2009.
The federal government is providing $104,000 in CDBG funds to the township for 2009-2010, which much be earmarked for specific uses in a public hearing. In other words, all funding classifications must be approved by the board.
The remaining $54,000 goes toward housing rehabilitation, public administration and administration costs.
Richard Henningsen, township treasurer, said that such funding is also available to help out senior citizens who may need housing repairs. However, many residents who need the funds don’t ask for the money because they don’t want to divulge all of the financial information required by the federal government to prove their eligibility for the funding.
Funding can be reallocated later in the program, but it has to be initially earmarked for certain uses.
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And an anonymous comment from the Northville record:
Using block grant money intended for rehabilitating less fortunate taxpayers homes to demolish buildings on a private commercial enterprise, is truly robbing the poor to further enhance the rich. Next the township board will be telling us to eat cake if we hunger, and that did not make Marie Antoinette very popular with her people. How many taxpayers are even aware that block grant money is available or how to apply for it? No wonder it goes unused. Maybe Thayer’s Corner Nature Park should benifit from the grant money instead of REIS.