Bradley County officials hold public hearing on CDBG and TDEC parks grants to turf ballfields and fund infrastructure

Bradley County officials heard a presentation and held a public hearing on pursuing federal and state grants to fund recreation and infrastructure projects, including a proposal to turf county baseball and softball fields.

Mayor Davis invited Sam Saeed and Stacy Willoughby from the regional development district to outline eligible activities under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program. “The Community Development Block Grant comes from Housing and Urban Development,” Willoughby said, summarizing the program’s typical uses.

Willoughby told commissioners that typical eligible activities include public health and safety projects (for example, fire or emergency management equipment), community infrastructure such as street and flood mitigation work, community revitalization projects like parks, and water and sewer system work. She identified turfing ballfields as the local revitalization activity the county is considering for this round.

She and Saeed described the federal grant ceiling and local match: applicants may request up to $1,000,000 in CDBG funds for construction or nonconstruction projects, and Bradley County must demonstrate a 17 percent local match of total project cost (Willoughby stressed the match is 17% of total project cost, not 17% of the grant amount).

Saeed explained how the CDBG application would align with the TDEC Local Parks and Recreation (LPRF) grant: the LPRF is a 50/50 match that can be paired with CDBG in an application. He said the LPRF pre-application deadline had been Jan. 14 and the LPRF full application is due April 1; the CDBG application deadline was described as March 20 in the presentation. Saeed warned that CDBG awards are typically not announced until October or November of the application year, and an environmental review of up to 120 days would occur before design and construction, so construction likely would not begin until 2027 even if the county is awarded funds.

Commissioners asked whether the turfing proposal referred to football or baseball fields; the presenters clarified the plan targets baseball and softball fields. Commissioners also asked about other eligible uses: Willoughby said she had not seen sheriff’s department equipment funded in her experience and that ambulances/EMS equipment are treated differently, while emergency operations center (EOC) projects related to the 2021 disaster CDBG remain under contract review with the state.

Willoughby said the development district would act as project administrator to help Bradley County with procurement and compliance if the county pursues the grants, but the county would select its professional services and administer the project. She cited a recent turfing project she is administering for McMinn County as an example of timeline and contractor experience.

The mayor circulated a sign-in sheet for the public hearing and thanked the presenters. Staff and the development district offered follow-up contact information for commissioners and members of the public.

Next steps: commissioners were told the county must adopt a resolution pledging access to the 17 percent local match at application time, staff asked commissioners to review the handout materials, and the county will proceed to place grant items on a future voting agenda if the commission chooses to move forward.