Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Cdbg Reallocation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Steering committee approves amendments to Gardner City's FY2026 CDBG application to reallocate prior-year funds
Summary
Gardner City's CBD Steering Committee voted to accept amendments to its FY2026 CDBG application, reallocating $140,000 in FY25 funds, moving City Hall Avenue design work into FY25 as a design-only item, and pausing several social-service or facility requests to close a roughly $103,000 shortfall.
The CBD Steering Committee met Feb. 24 and voted to approve proposed amendments to Gardner City's FY2026 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) application that reallocate prior-year funds and change the timing of a major infrastructure request.
The committee accepted a staff proposal to use $140,000 of unexpended FY25 funds (plus smaller balances from earlier years) and to move the design and bidding phase of the City Hall Avenue project into FY25 as a design-only request, freeing FY26 funds for program administration and social service contracts. The motion to accept the amendment passed by voice vote.
Why it matters: The reallocation affects which local nonprofits and projects the city can include in its FY26 packet to the state CDBG administrator (EOHLC). Staff said the change is intended to preserve funding for ongoing public social services while still advancing City Hall Avenue, a major infrastructure priority.
Director said the developer Embach had withdrawn its application after staff explained the project would trigger labor-compliance and prevailing-wage requirements, which would have increased costs and required contracted work rather than in-house labor. “They decided to withdraw their application,” the Director said, adding that the prevailing-wage requirement drove the decision.
Staff and the state also reclassified St. Paul’s community garden expansion as a public facility improvement rather than a public social service, undoing a constraint that would have counted it toward the five-activity cap on public social services that can be included in a community’s CDBG application.
Committee members discussed several ways to close a roughly $103,000 shortfall after removal of MVOC and St. Paul’s from the FY26 request: trimming program administration by $10,000, reallocating prior-year balances (including $9,000 leftover from 2022–23), and moving implementation-phase infrastructure requests to future amendments. A design estimate for City Hall Avenue was cited at $70,500 for the design/bidding phase.
Staff said they will submit the proposed project list to EOHLC within a week for initial review; the committee is tentatively scheduled to present the CDBG application to the council on April 6, with a final application deadline of April 21.
Next steps: Staff will finalize the reallocation language in the application packet, respond to any state questions, and proceed with the amended list as approved by the committee.
