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Show Block grants OK'd By MARK EDDINGTON Staff Writer BOUNTIFUL The Council of Governments (COG) voted Wednesday to allocate over $1.6 million in Community Development De-velopment Block Grants, to eight Davis County cities. The big winner in the annual battle for the federally funded grants was South Weber, which could receive' $417,000 of the $517,000 it requested, to help pay for installation of a sanitary sewer. Some South Weber residents are still using sceptic tanks. Other cities were not as fortunate. Fruit Heights, for example, will not receive the $609,000 it requested for flood control con-trol improvements and a new park. The following cities were slated to receive grants: South Weber, $417,000 for sanitary sewer for south portion of the city. Clearfield, $200,000 for improvements im-provements to Villa Subdivision. " West Point, $200,000 to replace a four inch water line near West Point Elementary School with a 10 inch line. Farmington, $200,000 storm drainage system improvements. Bountiful, $200,000 for a new ladder fire truck. North Salt Lake, $200,000 for renovation of Main Park. KaysviUe, $100,000 to con- . struct a new storm drain line. Clinton, $94,542 for a new curb, gutter and sidewalk on 1000 ; West Woods Cross application for $400,000 to clean up the South Bountiful Auto Wrecking Yard on 847 W. 1500 S., was denied. The council voted to deny Clearfield of $362,000 to replace a water line; and Clinton was denied $156,000 to reconstruct a storm water pond in Shoestring Park. Of the 18 voting members of the council, Woods Cross Mayor Robert Wright was the lone dissenter. Wright said his city's plan to clean up the wrecking yard was a good one and met with all the criteria necessary to receive the federal funds. "I would think cleaning up this site would rate higher than money for a fire truck or park improvements," im-provements," the disgruntled mayor told reporters. SEECDBG ON A-2 CDBG CONTINUED FROM A-1 Subcommittee officials say the fact that the South Bountiful Auto Wrecking Yard is private not public property and lack of leverage were several factors which hurt Wood r Cross in its bid for the federal grant, money. Woods Cross said it would . require- the full $400,000 ' for the project. Other cities were willing to I get by with less and raise the balance bal-ance on their own. f "We feel sympathy for Wrjght, but in our estimation, his project did not meet the criteria as well as spme of the others. There is only so much money to go around and some cities will be disappointed," said Sunset Mayor Norman Sant, who acted as a r chairman of the subcommittee which evaluated the funding requests. re-quests. Points were awarded in sixteen different categories, Santos said, and funding requests for sewers and water, projects were ranked very high because the committee felt they ' would benefit more people than cleaning up an auto wrecking yard. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which distributes the funds to each state, fa B specifies each project must primarily primari-ly benefit the lower or middle class, eliminate or prevent slums and blight, or be necessary for urgent health and safety reasons. In voting for the allocation, the C.O.G. approved ap-proved the recommendations of a five member subcommittee made up of members who represented cities which were ineligible for r grant money this year. It was the ! subcommittee's task to review and prioritize each request for the grant money. The subcommittees recommen-dation recommen-dation will go before the Wasatch Front Regional Council for ap- '. proval Thursday where it is ex- '. pected to pass easily. The W.F.R.C. I j acts as the regional approving au- j thority for Davis, Morgan, Toole " and Weber County. ! Final approval is granted by the ; Utah Department of Community ; and Economic Development. Officials say clearing these final ', two hurdles should not present ; much of a problem since some C.O.G. members also sit on the regional council and, both the W.F.R.C. and state authorities historically follow council recommendations. |