Anderson Township asks Rush County to serve as lead applicant for CDBG water construction; $750,000 grant planned

Tina Henderson of Mendenhall and Associates, representing the Anderson Township Regional Sewer District, asked the Rush County commissioners to serve as lead applicant on Community Development Block Grant applications aimed at moving a water project into construction.

"I'm Tina Henderson with Mendenhall and Associates, and I'm here representing Anderson Township Regional Sewer District," Henderson told the board, and she said the district is coordinating a $750,000 grant to help keep user rates low. Henderson said the Indiana Finance Authority SRF program will serve as the local match for the district and that the county's role would be as a pass-through; she added the project does not require a county cash match.

Henderson described the district's prior planning grant as closed and said the county can only have one active construction application at a time under the applicable rules she cited from the grant program: "...you can only have 1 application, construction application going into this time...The rule of thumb is that you have to get 1 in, fund it, and enter construction before you can, as a county, have the next application come in." She told the board a public hearing on the CDBG application is planned and that the next council meeting where approval is needed is July 8 at 09:00.

Commissioners did not commit to immediate action during the hearing; Henderson said she had already submitted the Rush County GRAMA application and was willing to wait until the July meeting if the board preferred to table the item. No formal vote on the county serving as lead applicant was recorded in the transcript.