Community Development Advisory Committee

MINUTES OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE April 8, 2009 3:00 P.M. Members Present: Les King, John Mathieu, Red McKeon, Demo Angelopoulos, and Tamara Lanier Others Present: Jennifer Gottlieb and Linda Lee Smith Call to Order The CDAC meeting was called to order at 3:04 p.m. Motion was made by Red McKeon to accept the minutes of the December 8, 2008 meeting and seconded by John Mathieu. Motion carried unanimously. Old Business. New Business A. Elect Chairperson Les King made a motion to elect Annette D’Antuono chairperson and John Mathieu seconded. The motion carried unanimously. Demo Angelopoulos made a motion to nominate Les King as vice- chairperson and John Mathieu seconded. The motion carried unanimously. B. Emergency Reallocation to Greeneville Fire Station Boiler A new boiler for the Greeneville Fire Station was included in the fire department’s application for funds for PY 35. However, the City Manager has requested this item be considered now as an emergency because the old boiler was leaking carbon monoxide and has been completely shut off now. The firemen are completely without heat and hot water. The Committee is asked to fund this project out of unexpended funds from two projects: the school Energy Efficiency project of PY 32 and the balance of the Greeneville Fire Station masonry rehab project, just completed.  All subrecipients are notified if they didn’t spend their funds within one year, they were at risk of reallocation. During PY 33 and 34, Jennifer Gottlieb reminded Jeff Brining of NPU and Delores Thayer of NPS that they had a balance and needed to draft a project for the balance but no project was submitted. Jennifer Gottlieb recently notified Norwich Public School that these funds would now be reallocated. Between these two projects, there is enough to cover the boiler for $40,000. When the committee proceeds through the process for PY 35 applications they will deduct the amount of the boiler from the total requested by the fire department. John Mathieu made a motion seconded by Tamara Lanier to approve funding for the Greeneville Fire Station Boiler. The re-allocated funds are from the Greeneville Fire Station Rehab Masonry Project and from the Norwich Public Schools Energy Efficiency Project. Motion carried unanimously. C. Fire Dept. to Transfer Funds from Balance of Energy Efficiency Lighting Project to Fire Dept. Hose The City had put a bid out for fire hose for Central & Occum Fire Dept. Shipman’s was the only conforming qualified bidder and there is a funding shortfall of $4,000. These funds are available from the Fire Dept. Energy Efficiency Lighting job, which is complete. Demo Angelopoulos made a motion seconded by John Mathieu to fund the shortfall of $4,000 for the Fire Dept. hose. Using the balance of the Energy Efficiency Lighting funds from the Fire Dept. Motion carried with Red McKeon abstaining. D&E YMCA & Stimulus Funds The city will receive $269,000 of stimulus funds for CDBG 08-09 this current year. The federal government wants as much job creation and retention as can be achieved with stimulus funds. Many jobs are being lost and are at risk of loss with the closure of the YMCA, both by YMCA staff and parents affected by the loss of childcare services. Also, there are over ten individuals at risk of homelessness. The YMCA needs a new heating system and the $269,000 in stimulus funds could be a great help to achieve that. The city requests that the committee consider this project for the stimulus funds. This is an emergency application considered outside of the regular procedures due to the extremely negative impact on the community, and on the population the CDBG program is designed to serve. The city asks that the committee consider the question of whether the closure of the YMCA would warrant  the acceptance of an emergency application that would not threaten the future integrity of the application procedure. Jeff Brining is briefing the city on the cost and recommendations for heating systems. The committee members want to see a long term feasibility plan for the continuation of services but understand that now the question is limited to the question of application acceptance and they do not have an application currently before them they can discuss on the merits. The intent in seeking these funds is to allow the YMCA or other entity to continue to use the YMCA building to provide to certain services essential to the community including childcare and single room occupancy rental. There are not enough childcare slots in other area daycares to accommodate all the children needing care and the great number of single parent households or other households otherwise needing childcare to maintain the employment they need to survive makes this a high priority. There is an estimate of sixty children that use the facility but the YMCA also operates before and after care at the public schools in Norwich. Most of these parents are using the State Care for Kids Program so they could not use an unlicensed provider and it limits their options. The committee will wait for the stakeholders if they come forward with a proposal. Annette had sent an email that she would want to put funds towards the heating system to retain services such as childcare and housing for those at risk of homelessness. Due to the crisis situation impacting a certain population highly dependant on services at the YMCA, Demo Angelopoulos made a motion seconded by John Mathieu that they would accept an application from outside their normal periodicity from an operator to facilitate a continuation of certain essential services of childcare and single room occupancy that is associated with the building at 337 Main Street. F. Eligibility Issues NAC/Kids – late submission There was some discussion that it is the committee’s standard policy not to accept any late applications. The Assistant City Manager called NAC twice during the RFP as a courtesy reminder. They also submitted late last year and so were well aware of the policy.  John Mathieu made a motion seconded by Red McKeon to reject NAC/Kids late application per the committees past policies and enforcement. Motion carried unanimously. SCADD Ownership Issue SCADD submitted an application and they are renting space and do not own the building. Margaret Belli owns the building. Several months ago, Mr. Belli called the Office and was told that the proper place for an owner- investor like him to access our Programs is through the Property Rehab Program as an owner-investor. The Rehab Program has certain matching requirements for owner investors. There is no published rule but the policy has always been that the Property Rehab Program gives owner- investors an opportunity to do this kind of work and if this application is funded as a pure grant through CDBG that is unfair to other owner investors who comply with the requirements of the Rehab Program. Such an inconsistency undermines the Rehab program and uniform procedures for administration. MLK Center Certain Ineligible Expenses The MLK Center did submit a request but not in the same format as everyone else followed. If the committee does accept the application, giving the Center’s apparent inability to fill out a formal application, the committee is advised that according to the HUD regulations certain listed items in the application, those that cover general operating expenses, are not eligible for funding. The relevant citation from the CDBG regs, Section 570.207 Ineligible Activities was distributed to the committee. The MLK Center had been advised by staff that they could fund certain operating expenses that were prorated to serve certain discrete funded programs but they couldn’t apply for general operating expenses needed to keep the center open. It was decided for the Public Hearings to do the Capital Improvement applications first. Jennifer Gottlieb agreed and offered to forward questions ahead of time to the Committee. Then they will be forwarded to the applicant in advance if they need to prepare. Applicants should limit their presentation to 3-5 minutes to what wasn’t included in their application. Tamara Lanier asked a question on disclosure. She has affiliations with some of the organizations and was asking she knew she couldn’t vote but not sure on discussion. If there were affiliations with any organizations she would be asked to leave the room. There was no problem with past affiliations. There was some discussion on the Catholic Charities and a foreclosure program. There is also a similar service through the courts and State going through foreclosure. This could be a duplication of service that is already provided and is free. The first Public Hearing will be on Monday, April 20, 2009 at 3:30 p.m. for the construction project applicants. Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 3:30 p.m. for the social service applications. Adjournment John Mathieu made a motion to adjourn. Red McKeon seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. The CDAC meeting ended at 4:17 p.m.