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Warren County staff recommend CDBG funding priorities; board weighs nonprofit grants and capital options
Summary
Staff proposed distributing the county's $872,108 Community Development Block Grant allocation across public-service projects, infrastructure and capital candidates; commissioners discussed eligibility, Harveysburg historical requests and the possibility of steering larger capital projects to the state capital budget program.
County economic-development staff presented a recommended breakdown of Warren County’s federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocation of $872,108 and discussed options for distributing public-service and capital dollars.
Candice Miller of economic development reviewed a spreadsheet of requests and proposed awards across public-service projects and infrastructure. Staff noted a federally required cap that generally limits funding for nonprofit public-service projects to 15% of the allocation (about $130,000 this year) and offered two allocation scenarios for the board to consider.
Staff flagged several large requests — including a Harveysburg Community Historical Society request — as candidates better suited for state capital-budget applications rather than the county CDBG program. Commissioners and staff noted that Harveysburg had previously been awarded demolition/brownfield funds and had not used those funds for the project for which they had been provided; legal and administrative staff recommended against awarding additional county CDBG funds for a demolition project that previously had an award unresolved.
Commissioners said they appreciated the staff recommendations and asked staff to begin the public-notice and application-processing steps so projects could move forward. Several commissioners suggested the county consider winding down routine operating support to nonprofits from CDBG over time and reserving federal CDBG dollars for infrastructure and capital projects that meet HUD eligibility in low-income census tracts.
No formal final award was voted at the work session; staff were instructed to begin the public advertisement process and return with any adjustments based on board input. The board also discussed outreach to eligible applicants and potential capital-budget applications for larger projects.
