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Pocomoke City council approves termination of long-standing CDBG encumbrance on city-owned restaurant property
Summary
The mayor and council authorized city and county signatures to terminate a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) lien that has encumbered the city-owned restaurant property since 2008, freeing the city from ongoing grant reporting requirements for five years and removing state grant strings after that period.
Pocomoke City Mayor and Council voted on Feb. 18 to sign an agreement that terminates state CDBG grant requirements on a city‑owned restaurant property commonly referred to in the meeting as the Dockside property.
Worcester County Chief Administrative Officer Westy Young told the council the property acquisition dated to February 2008 and said the grant carried conditions the current and prior restaurant tenants could not meet. “The ultimate ask to the state was . . . how do we end the grant that we're never going to be able to achieve,” Young said, explaining that, if signed by the mayor, the council and the county commission president, the agreement would remove the annual grant paperwork requirement going forward and leave a five‑year lien period; once that five years expires “there are no state strings,” he said.
Young said the county is acting as a pass‑through on the original grant and that the county’s goal was to give the city “freedom to do whatever you want with it without any strings attached.” Council discussion included support for ending the long‑running reporting burden. A motion to approve the city’s signing of the termination agreement was made and seconded; the council voted in favor. Mayor Todd J. Knott told Young he would deliver the signed document in a couple of days.
During audience comments, Jamie Evans of Dockside Restaurant, 2 Riverside Drive, said customers had been calling the restaurant after seeing the agenda language and asked the council to issue a written statement clarifying that the termination action was about the grant encumbrance on the city property and did not mean the tenant was being evicted. “Dockside didn't have anything to do with that grant,” Evans said, requesting a press release or other written notice to avoid public confusion.
The county advised the council that selling the property before the five‑year window would require the state to claim a portion of sale proceeds; after the five‑year period, the county said, the city would be free of state claims. The county and city did not direct the tenants to vacate; Young said the county and city had discussed the change with current tenants and that the intent was not to remove them.
No additional conditions or implementation deadlines beyond the described five‑year lien and the immediate removal of reporting were recorded in the meeting transcript.
