Council Proposes More Senior Citizen Home Repair Funds | News, Sports, Jobs


The Metropolis Council is planning to vote at the close of the thirty day period on a resolution that would provide an supplemental $500,000 for the Senior Citizen Household Enhancement method. If handed, the resolution would carry the overall for the plan to $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act cash. Pictured, from left, are Councilwoman Kim Ecklund, R-At Big, Councilman Randy Daversa, R-At Massive, Councilman Jeff Russell, R-At Large and Councilman Andrew Faulkner, R-Ward VI.
P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

The Senior Citizen Residence Advancement program will likely receive a lot more funding by the end of the month as Metropolis Council associates approach on voting to approve additional American Rescue Prepare Act funding for the community.
Whilst the city’s remaining ARPA funding has quickly lessened in current months, Town Council customers have frequently discussed the need to have to improve funding for the preferred Senior Citizen Residence Advancement method. In the course of Monday’s do the job session, Town Council President Anthony Dolce, R-Ward II, asked the council to consider a proposal to allocate an extra $500,000 to the program owing to the multitude of requests council customers have obtained from people today in the neighborhood.
“I’m absolutely sure we have all had a variety of e-mail or phone calls about the plan,” he stated. “To date, we have allocated $1 million.”
Dolce explained that the Town Council could pick out from a couple distinct choices to allocate the further ARPA funding for the method. He advised the Metropolis Council could possibly allocate an additional $500,000 from the remaining ARPA funding in buy to deliver the system to a whole of $1.5 million or the council could reallocate funding from another neighborhood house enhancement application that has not but appear “off the floor.”
Regardless of how the funding could be allotted, Dolce stressed the significance of furnishing the further funding for the Senior Citizen Property Advancement method so that all eligible candidates could be awarded funds.
In the course of Monday’s get the job done session, the Finance Committee also questioned the total council how it must proceed with the town administration’s proposal for the 19A Property Possession software. While Town Council customers talked about considerations with the metropolis getting into the authentic estate enterprise, the vast majority of the council agreed that the system could profit the group by supplying an alternative to demolition for homes that could be enhanced with an preliminary expense by the city and sold to new house owners at a affordable price tag and for a feasible financial gain.
Yet, with dwindling ARPA money, Metropolis Council associates agreed that the proposal to fund the program should really be diminished from the asked for $750,000 to $500,000. Regardless of the reduction in the 19A House Possession program’s funding, the city administration indicated that the system would even now be equipped to transfer ahead correctly.
With $250,000 significantly less predicted to be allotted to the 19A Dwelling Ownership method, Dolce urged the council to use the funding to help fund the remaining $500,000 for the Senior Citizen Residence Enhancement Program.
“My recommendation tonight is that if we’re getting the $250,000 from the 19A method, that cuts that in 50 percent and then you allocate yet another $250,000 from ARPA to bring the senior housing method up to $1.5 million, and then you nevertheless have the other $500,000 for the other method,” he said.
At the suggestion of Dolce, the other Metropolis Council members agreed that the finest way to allocate funding for the Senior Citizen Household Improvement plan would be to use the $250,000 from the 19A Home Ownership plan in conjunction with an supplemental $250,000 from the unallocated ARPA funding.
Mayor Eddie Sundquist explained the metropolis administration will modify the proposals to mirror the City Council’s steerage relating to the reallocation of the remaining ARPA funding prior to November’s upcoming voting session.
Dolce reported the improved funding for the Senior Citizen Residence Enhancement method will assist the Metropolis Council go a person action closer to conference the wants of the local community that were discussed before any of the ARPA funding was allotted.
“That was 1 of the essential components that we heard final summer throughout the 4 conferences that we had, receiving the money in the arms of the inhabitants and neighborhoods as a lot as we could,” Dolce claimed. “We’ve experimented with to move this things close to. We have hit each individual solitary detail. We’ve hit community safety, we have housing, advancement, just about every single corner of the various categories.”
City Councilman Jeff Russell, R-At Massive, said each the metropolis administration and the council have completed “a reasonably very good task distributing ARPA revenue in an equitable way to a variety of departments and programs.