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ECDA reports 45 active housing projects, demolition and roof bids to be reissued
Summary
Kankakee Economic and Community Development Agency reported 45 active construction projects, ongoing waitlists for lead abatement and healthy-homes work, and plans to re-bid a Fifth Avenue demolition and public-facility roof project; staff also highlighted community outreach and a volunteer Day of Action.
Barbara Watson, ECDA director, told the Community Development Committee on May 5 that the Economic and Community Development Agency has 45 construction projects active across the city and projects in every ward.
The update matters because these programs — funded through federal grants and local allocations — deliver housing rehabilitation, lead abatement and other repairs to low-income residents and influence waiting lists and contractor schedules.
"We have 45 projects that are in progress right now, various stages from inspection to rehab, clearance," Watson said. She said the agency completed 19 housing-rehab projects in the previous fiscal year and expects more completions this year as the new fiscal year begins.
Watson reported program wait lists: a general wait list of 201 applicants and a lead-abatement wait list of 95 people. She said the ECDA has seven projects in progress under a program the transcript calls the "lehi program" and 17 in-process healthy-homes projects; the healthy-homes monthly goal remains five projects. For the Community Development Block Grant housing-rehab side, she said the annual goal is 23 homes and there were 12 in progress.
On demolition and public-facility work, Watson said the Fifth Avenue demolition will be reissued for bids after an earlier error in the bidding process and that the public-facility roof project bids will also be published this week. "The published announcement is gonna be out on Wednesday... So we're going out to bid from our error in the previous bid process," she said, adding staff want the work completed this summer so allocated money is spent.
Watson said estimates for a roof project had previously come back higher than anticipated and that staff are working to attract more local bidders. She said prior bids included "a lot of extra stuff in it, and it was way more than what it was what it needed to be." On the demolition, she said work will be re-bid via the city clerk's website and ECDA pages.
On the community-outreach side, Watson and Maya Pedigu, assistant director, highlighted a Day of Action that drew more than 150 volunteers and 14 projects, which the ECDA said built goodwill with residents and partners. Watson also credited staff social-media work: she singled out two employees for a post that has been shared widely and generated large reach about an EMT who became a city employee.
Watson noted the ECDA is collecting final reports from CDBG public-service grantees (including Catholic Charities, Eastside and We Stand For Christ Jesus Ministries) and said applications for the next fiscal year were under review with community-advisory board input; she said a recommendation on allocations is anticipated in June.
The committee did not take formal votes on the program items during the presentation; ECDA staff described next steps for bidding and for continuing program intake and reporting.
Ending note: the ECDA said staff will post bid notices on the ECDA and city-clerk websites and expects to return to committee with formal recommendations on award and allocation as those procurement processes conclude.
