Hocking County approves $120,000 allocation split for CDBG grant applications

Hocking County commissioners on an unspecified May meeting approved using the county's $120,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocation as local match for two competitive applications: $82,400 to support the Village of Laurelville's critical infrastructure (CI) grant application and $37,600 to support the City of Logan's Neighborhood Revitalization Grant (NRG) application.

HACAP (HACAP community development coordinators Jeff and Nathan Simons) presented commissioners with three submissions for the county's allocation funding: a parks and recreation request from the Village of Murray City for about $50,100 (allocation funds), a Laurelville CI project estimated at $582,400, and Logan's prospective NRG application. Nathan Simons said the CI program has a $500,000 ceiling, which leaves an $82,400 shortfall for Laurelville that the county's allocation could cover.

"Our suggestion'since Murray City was recently funded'is to provide the requested allocation match to the Village of Laurelville," Simons said, adding that the county could apply the remaining allocation funds as the match for Logan's NRG, equal to $37,600. Simons noted that NRG projects depend heavily on community participation and that Logan held a first community meeting earlier in the week.

HACAP staff described an alternate plan if competitive applications are not funded: use the $420,000 (staff's suggested alternate) to fund a parks-and-recreation project in Logan that could be scaled to the available allocation. Simons said the state application portal opened the day before and that the state deadline to submit applications is June 11.

Commissioners asked for clarifications on timelines and who administers the grants. Jeff and Simons said the county traditionally uses HACAP's administrative capacity but that the county may administer the program in-house if it has staff capacity. A commissioner asked whether the county could assign its grant administrator, "Sean," to handle administration and thereby retain administrative fees; HACAP said that would be the county's prerogative if staff capacity exists.

Commissioners and HACAP staff discussed project detail needs and outreach steps for Logan's NRG: a neighborhood survey and a second community meeting to finalize ranked project priorities, then engineering feasibility checks to narrow projects for the state application. HACAP said the county must have project details nailed down by Monday, May 26, to provide ad copy to the Logan Daily by Tuesday, May 27, for public-notice publication.

The commissioners voted to approve the recommended allocation: $82,400 to support Laurelville's CI application and $37,600 to support Logan's NRG application. The vote was made by motion and second; no roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript. Commissioners said the allocation, if those competitive awards are successful, could leverage the county's $120,000 into significantly larger state grants for each community.

Background and recent awards: HACAP told the panel Laurelville last received CDBG funding in program year 2019 (February 2019), and Logan last received funding in February 2017 for development of East Park.

Votes at a glance

- Motion: "Approve the recommended funding of $82,400 to support the Village of Laurelville application for a critical infrastructure grant and $37,600 for the City of Logan's neighborhood revitalization grant." Mover: unnamed commissioner. Second: unnamed commissioner. Outcome: approved (voice vote). Vote tally: not specified.

What happens next

HACAP will proceed with finalizing applications for submittal to the state by the June 11 deadline, subject to community meeting outcomes and any further county sign-off on final project lists. HACAP also advised the county to prepare a second public hearing and to confirm whether the county will retain grant administration or contract HACAP to administer the grants.