CDBG savings boost 2018 projects
The city directed $33,006 in planning and administrative savings to its list of prioritized Community Development Block Grant projects for the federal fiscal year that ends this month.
The Hot Springs Board of Directors approved the reprogramming of funds Tuesday night, directing $14,000 toward historic preservation work at the John
Lee Webb House, 403 Pleasant St., and $19,006 for Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant sidewalk and drainage improvements on Park Avenue.
The prioritized fiscal year 2018 list developed by the Community Development Advisory Committee, or CDAC, the board adopted in December allocated $62,000 in CDBG funding for the historic preservation of the Webb House’s porch and porte-cochere. Planning and Development Director Kathy Sellman said Thursday the $14,000 reprogrammed earlier this week will go toward reconstructing the perimeter foundation of the Pleasant Street Historic District property.
The list allocated $27,774 for Park Avenue sidewalk improvements. Sellman said the $19,006 approved Tuesday night will pay for additional improvements.
“There’s always so many more requests than we can fund, but CDAC does a pretty good job funding as much as they can without denying other projects some funding also,” Sellman said.
Most of the funds allocated Tuesday night came from $20,000 in CDBG planning and administrative savings expected for the current fiscal year. Sellman said that money was slated to pay a consultant for assistance with the 2019-23 consolidated plan the city is required to submit as a condition of CDBG participation, but public input gathered during the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice study the city conducted earlier this year can be incorporated into the five-year plan.
“Because of the degree of public participation we did on that, we can transfer that public involvement into our consolidated plan,” she said. “We were going to pay a consultant, but now we can do it in-house.”
Planning and administrative savings of $12,159 from the city’s fiscal year 2017 CDBG allocation was also included in funds reprogrammed Tuesday night. Sellman said the savings are the result of contracting a CDBG administrator instead of funding a full-time staff position to oversee the program.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rules prohibit planning and administration from exceeding 20 percent of a city’s annual CDBG allocation, Sellman said.
“We were always bumping up against the cap when we used to have a full-time administrator,” she said. “We changed over to a contract administrator, and now we’re paying for the time we use rather than paying someone full-time. We’ve seen great savings in that category, and we have an amazing administrator.”
Sellman said the city has been notified that it can begin drawing on its $456,368 allocation for the current fiscal year. The allocation increased 17 percent from the previous fiscal year despite the elimination of CDBG funds in President Donald Trump’s budget proposal.
The fiscal year 2018 budget Congress passed earlier this year increased program spending to $3.23 billion. Similar CDBG funding levels for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 are in spending bills that contain HUD’s funding. Both bills advanced to a Sept. 13 conference committee of the House and Senate.
The two houses of Congress passed spending bills with CDBG funding at levels similar to the current fiscal year despite the elimination of program funding recommended by the president’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposal. According to the White House’s budget document, the program duplicates services state and local governments are better equipped to administer.
Hot Springs is one of more than 1,200 local governments that qualify for CDBG funds allocated according to a formula that considers population, housing stock and income statistics. Board district 1 and 2 receive most of the money, which is directed at low and moderate-income areas.