Repaving Richmond Street tops Arnold's plans for $300K in grant money

Arnold is proposing to spend nearly half of a federal grant to pay for resurfacing Richmond Street.

City residents will get a chance to comment on that, and other proposed uses for the more than $300,000 grant, during a public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. Aug. 11 at the public safety building on Drey Street.

The city is receiving $303,213 through the Community Development Block Grant program, said Rich Rayburg, the city’s community development director. The federal CDBG money is administered by the state.

Repaving the entire length of Richmond from Freeport Road to Constitution Boulevard would cost about $147,000. The heavily used road is in “pretty bad shape,” Rayburg said.

The city has received about $300,000 annually through the program for the past few years, Rayburg said.

The city recently used money through the CDBG program to resurface all of Freeport Road within the city’s boundaries and part of Fifth Avenue. It also paid for the demolition of 10 buildings.

“We’re using the funds every year and it’s really helping our community,” Rayburg said.

The other proposed uses for the money could need to be adjusted based on how much the work on Richmond Street costs, but the city is tentatively planning to spend:

• $30,000 for code enforcement. Rayburg said this would cover half of the code enforcement officer’s salary, and the city would cover the rest.

• $30,000 for firefighting equipment. No. 2 Fire Chief Keith Dziobak said the money would be split evenly between the city’s two fire companies. He said his company plans to use its money on air tanks, and No. 1 would buy hose.

Dziobak said his company has 14 tanks, or air packs. At $7,500 each, the grant money would pay for two.

“The air packs have a life expectancy on them,” he said. “We’re just trying to be proactive and replace a couple each year. That way we don’t have to replace all of them at the same time.”

The grant money helps the department a lot, especially this year, he said.

“We lost a lot of money because we weren’t able to have fundraisers,” he said.

• $20,000 for recreation. Rayburg said it would be used to buy playground equipment.

• $25,000 for loan repayment. The money goes toward repaying a $330,000 loan the city took out in 2007 to tear down buildings along Third Avenue, Rayburg said.

The remaining money, about $54,600, covers administration and planning costs, Rayburg said.

How the money would be spent is still preliminary and could be changed, he said.

City Council could vote to authorize completing and submitting the grant application after the Aug. 11 hearing. Once approved, the proposed application will be available for public inspection from Aug. 17 to Aug. 31 at the city Community Development Office, 1829 Fifth Ave. The application to the state is due by Oct. 28.