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Linn County holds public hearing on CDBG disaster-recovery homes at pocket-neighborhood site
Summary
County officials reviewed a nearly $1 million CDBG disaster-recovery contract and construction progress for a six-unit pocket-neighborhood project; two homes are complete (one sold), invoices total $511,354.41 through Aug. 31, 2025, and contract amendments added $19,309 to cover delivery cost increases and timeline extensions.
Linn County supervisors opened a public hearing to review the status of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) disaster-recovery housing activities for a small pocket-neighborhood project within the county.
Paula Mitchell of the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, the contract administrator, told the board a CDBG disaster-recovery housing contract of $990,000 was awarded to Linn County by the Iowa Economic Development Authority with a release of funds on 09/18/2023. "That's 3 structures, 6 units," Mitchell said, and construction began after a pre-construction conference on 03/06/2025.
Mitchell provided expenditure figures through 08/31/2025: $511,354.41 invoiced in total, including $467,549.41 for construction and $43,805 for project service delivery and administration. She described the construction status: two homes are completed (one has sold to an eligible buyer; the other is under a purchase agreement expected to close in November), two units are at the carpentry/millwork stage and expected to be substantially complete by October 2025, and the final two units are enclosed with siding projected substantially complete by November 2025.
Mitchell said contract amendments were approved on 06/11/2024 and 06/19/2025 to add $11,033 and $8,276, respectively, "to help offset increased costs of project delivery," and an amendment on 01/04/2025 extended the performance timeline to accommodate unforeseen site conditions that delayed work. Mitchell told the board she had not received comments from the public about the site.
The board accepted Mitchell's report, asked that the notes she read be provided to the auditor's office, and—after giving members of the public an opportunity to speak and receiving none—voted to close the hearing. The hearing record uses two variant names for the site in the transcript ("Dallas Pocket Neighborhood" and "Dow's Pocket Neighborhood"). The county record provided at the hearing identifies the project as CDBG disaster-recovery housing for a small pocket-neighborhood site; the transcript shows inconsistent spellings of the neighborhood name and the county may use a single standard spelling in official paperwork.
The public hearing was closed by motion and carried by voice vote.
