Groves looking at CDBG funding

GROVES — Competition for Community Development Block Grants across the state are tight, but Groves is poised to have a better chance at the funding.

On Monday, two Selection Review Committees consisting of Groves City Mayor Chris Borne, Finance Director Lamar Ozley, and Public Works Director Troy Foxworth were formed to assist.

The committees are tasked with reviewing separate Requests For Proposal for professional administrative services.

The funding comes from different CDBG funding and is earmarked for different programs.

The Resilient Communities Program is a one-time program available to cities and counties affected by the 2015, 2016 and Hurricane Harvey disasters. The grant limit is $300,000, does not require a match from the city and is available for a number of years.

“The RCP is a community-based planning process so there would be a lot of community engagement,” City Manager Kevin Carruth said. “As we go through it, it would last four or five months. I think the process will be very helpful to the community.”

This would mean going through development regulations, meeting with the community in town hall type meetings, surveys, council meetings and meeting with staff and stakeholders to determine priorities before fine tuning the city’s development regulations, he added.

The second CDBG related program for which a consultant is sought is for centers around water, sewer and streets programs. The maximum amount of the grant has been increased this year from $500,000 to $700,000. Cities are chosen on a points system and the city would need a 15 percent match to receive the maximum points, he said.
The fact that the last time the city of Groves had projects done under a CDBG program was in 2019 is an advantage for the city.

Carruth said one of the criteria questions asked is if a city received an award the previous year — if so, the city wouldn’t receive those points.

“So somebody like us in this case, we haven’t received an award in several years so we would get the maximum points,” he said, adding this is a competitive grant.
The next step for the city is to develop and issue the RFPs.

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