Director flags CDBG reporting errors, rear-Main Street debris problem; council moves to form steering committee

At its Feb. 18 meeting, the Gardner City Council heard a one-month status report from Jason Stevens, the city’s Director of Community Development and Planning, who told the council he had identified reporting errors in the city’s Community Development Block Grant program and structural problems at the Rear Main Street redevelopment site.

Stevens said the city’s CDBG reimbursements were properly allocated and spent but that the department submitted incorrect reports to the state and to Housing and Urban Development, delaying state approval of the FY2025 project and program list. “I want to be clear…all money we have received from CDBG has been properly allocated and spent,” Stevens told the council, but he added that reporting errors must be corrected before the state will approve outstanding reimbursements and the next year’s…