Two Community Development Block Grant applications by Mount Airy seeking $2 million in federal funds for local water and sewer upgrades, including in the Westside Redevelopment Area, have hit a snag.
“Neither one of our applications made the cut this funding cycle,” city Community Development Director Martin Collins said of a pair of a CDBG requests submitted in September as part of plans to replace aging lines.
The good news is that this doesn’t eliminate the possibility of Mount Airy ultimately receiving the funds, according to Collins, who has a successful track record with grant applications to aid various local economic-development and other projects.
“Really, our plan is to do a little work on the applications and submit them again in the next funding cycle,” he explained in recent days.
“Hopefully in the next funding cycle, we’ll have a better chance of success.”
The two grants each sought $2 million in federal funding for water/sewer improvements in separate areas, for a total of $4 million. However, only one of the $2 million grants could be awarded to the city under CDBG rules.
One of the sections targeted is the Westside Redevelopment Area that includes the former Spencer’s Inc. industrial site the city government now owns and is trying to revitalize, and a public housing neighborhood. The other grant was sought for a mostly residential area around Merritt and Maple streets.
The overall community eyed for the water and sewer line replacements is bounded on the south by Franklin Street, on the North by Maple Street, on the east by Willow Street and on the west by North South Street.
“In these particular areas, they’re old — they’re starting to have some problems,” Collins has said of utility lines there. “These are the ones that have frequent breaks.”
Collins said in September that a catalyst for the grants’ submission was a recent study that showed the city is receiving no revenue for water worth hundreds of thousands of dollars which is being lost to leaks and other problems.
Competitive process
The community development director had said in September that the grant process would be “incredibly competitive,” which turned out to be the case.
“We just were in a cycle with some very competitive grants and I guess there were greater needs than we have,” Collins said last week of other communities vying for the CDBG assistance.
“Typically, I think it’s always a thing where they have far more applications than they can feasibly fund.”
Collins said there is a bright spot in the grant denial, a suggestion that Mount Airy is better off than other localities seeking grants.
“Only the best applications are going to be successful, but factored into that the most-needy communities are often distressed,” he said.
“So we have those two considerations, the quality of the applications and the relative need of the community.”
One of the elements of need Mount Airy had to demonstrate is the income level for the residents to be served, which included 69.3 percent of the citizens in the overall project area considered low-and-moderate income individuals based on 2014 data.
The average income among the affected residents is $29,284.
Collins said the failure to win the grants on the first go-round should not be discouraging to local residents or city officials seeking to revitalize the former Spencer’s property, which would be aided by the water-sewer upgrades.
“These (applications) are incredibly competitive, so it is not unusual to not be successful and have a better chance the second time.”
One drawback involves the additional months that will pass before the city can tap into the next grant cycle.
“I am going to say it would certainly delay things for at least six months,” Collins said.
Tom Joyce may be reached at 336-415-4693 or on Twitter @Me_Reporter.
