CDBG grant application will require an appraisal

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

BENTON -- Gloryland will need to get a ballpark value for the building they wish to purchase before Scott County will offer sponsorship for a grant.

Bishop Charles Green from Gloryland Community Development Corporation met with Scott County officials during their regular meeting Tuesday to discuss the Community Development Block Grant application.

Gloryland is pursuing the CDBG to purchase the old Lincoln School building in Sikeston which now houses the Lincoln-Gloryland Community Center. Green said Gloryland has leased the building since 2002.

County Developer Joel Evans presented commissioners and Green with a list of documentation requested by Joe Lane, director of community planning for the Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission at Dexter.

"We rely on the Bootheel Regional Planning Commission for their expertise," Presiding Commissioner Jamie Burger said.

The most critical documentation on Lane's list is an appraisal of the building, according to Evans.

"I don't agree with his decision," Green said. "I talked to (the Department of Economic Development) myself. They do not require a full appraisal at this time. They don't require spending $2,000 before they approve it."

Green said a walk-through appraisal is scheduled soon but a full appraisal would not be conducted until the grant's approval.

Burger said BRPC needs "some kind of number" or the chances for approval will be very slim.

"We don't want to send it in if it's not going to fly, if it doesn't have a chance for approval," he said.

Evans also advised the local matching funds proposed for the grant application are only one-sixth of 1 percent of the project's total cost.

"Based on that it doesn't have a good chance of competing," Evans said. "Historically, 25 percent is required to be competitive."

Among other concerns listed by Lane were $1,000 in surplus funds at the end of the project; legal service and local administrator not identified; $500 budgeted for legal costs without explanation; plans to hire six employees for the project with no funds identified for salaries; and no documentation of outreach efforts.

"He was also concerned about the timeliness of the grant," Evans said. He said Lane advised it would be April or May before he could complete the application which would mean the application would be submitted late in the grant cycle when it is likely most of the CDBG funding will have been allocated.

"If we do it right the first time, we won't have to do it again," Commissioner Dennis Ziegenhorn said of the grant application.

Burger advised Green to get the estimated value of the building and then contact the Commission. "Once we get that, we'll have a meeting," he said.

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