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Show Receiving grant money requires planning KAYSVBLLE The trite saying, say-ing, "Never look a gift horse in the mouth," isn't true when it comes to applying for and receiving Community Com-munity Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding for municipal projects. pro-jects. Kaysville City Manager, John Thacker, has many years of experi-I experi-I ence in applying for and receiving ' block grant funding. Some benefits Kaysville has received from this 15- f year-old, federally financed program pro-gram include: a water storage tank and transmission lines along 200 j North in 1982; a water line in West ! Kaysville in 1985; funding through three separate grants for the Autumn Glow Senior Citizens Center; a water line along 500 East in 1990 and a city wide housing rehabilitation program that allowed a low or deferred interest loan program pro-gram to people who qualified. This year Kaysville was again successful in obtaining $100,000 in funding for the completion of culinary water lines along 500 East and the beginning of installation of new storm sewer lines in this same area. Mayor Brit Howard credits Kaysville's success in receiving this funding to the efforts and expertise of Thacker. The first step Thacker takes in starting the block grant application process is to determine if the project will meet the HUD (Housing and Urban Development) criteria established. estab-lished. This means the project must: 1. "Improve the nation's housing stock, especially for low and moderately low incomes"; 2. eliminate elim-inate blight; or 3. eliminate a serious seri-ous healthsafety threatexisting or new. Thacker said the only Davis County project he believes has met the third criteria is funding for flood control that Farmington received after the surprise floods of 1983. Once the city has determined the nature of a potential CDBG project, two public hearings are conducted. At the first hearing, the block grant program is explained to those in attendance. at-tendance. The second hearing explains ex-plains the projects that the city will submit for funding. Rarely, do any citizens attend CDBG public hearings. hear-ings. The grant money comes from HUD. It was delegated to the states to administer five years ago. The state delegates this responsibility to the planning region (Wasatch Front in this area) and then to the county (Council of Governments in Davis County). |
