City Council awards CR Neighborhoods a $100k grant

The city's association of neighborhoods was sufficiently in turmoil in March that the City Council refused to steer $100,000 to the group from $10.1 million spread around the city as part of the state's Community Disaster Grant Program.

Tonight, the council had a change of heart. It awarded CR Neighborhoods, which is comprised of neighborhood presidents, a $100,000 grant after hearing that the presidents had reached a consensus on how the money should be spent.

Greg Stokesberry, president of CR Neighborhoods, and Sandi Fowler, assistant to the city manager, explained that the group will use the $100,000 grant to establish a neighborhood center to be used by all the neighborhood associations. Half of the grant money will be used for a grant researcher and writer who will work to find funding for the neighborhood center on an ongoing basis.

Stokesberry said the hope is to beef up existing neighborhood groups and to help organize associations in other neighborhoods.

Fowler also reported to the City Council tonight that the state Community Disaster Grant Program had awarded the city an additional $604,097 over and above the earlier sum of $10.1 million.

Fowler presented three ideas for how the new funds should be spent, which the council approved on a 7-2 vote. Council members Monica Vernon and Brian Fagan voted no.

Fowler explained that the City Hall's Recovery and Reinvestment Coordinating Team recommended the three ideas to get the extra funding. A frustrated Vernon was displeased, saying she wasn't convinced a good review of community needs had taken place for how to spend such a large sum of money.

Of the $604,097, $423,000 will go to the city's public works operation to pay for snow removal and mowing equipment in the flood-affected areas of the city; $47,550 will go to help repair flood-damaged facilities at Ushers Ferry; and $135,000 will go to pay consultant Sasaki Associates Inc. for work on the city's River Corridor Redevelopment Plan.