About 20 Athens County residents presented their cases to the county commissioners yesterday for receiving funding from the Community Development Block Grant.
The Community Development Block Grant is a federal block grant given to the state, which divides the grant among counties based on the low-to-moderate income population.
One program developed by the state to distribute money from the grant is the formula program. That program distributes funding to construction projects, including water, sewer and road improvements, which will benefit citizens of low-to-moderate income.
Athens County received $206,000 for 2007. Of that money, $33,000 will go to the City of Nelsonville, which will be able to fund one to three projects. The county's fair housing program and grant administration will use another $35,000, leaving the commissioners $138,000 to allocate to construction projects for the rest of the county.
There were 16 projects submitted this year, and the commissioners will fund up to six. They can choose to completely fund a project or only partly fund it.
In order to qualify for the grant, 50 percent or more of the beneficiaries must be below the poverty level, County Commissioner Bill Theisen said.
We look for projects that are really necessary in the community and will benefit the most people
Theisen said.
The projects also must be able to be completed by December 31, 2007, Theisen said.
They will decide which projects will receive funding in the next few weeks.
The Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action program is hired by Athens County to administer the grant.
The grant money is down 25 percent from 2003, and under the president's proposed budget cut, it will be cut another 25 percent, said Jessica Stroh, Community Development Coordinator at the Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action program.
There's a lot of need in the county and just not a lot of funding Stroh said.
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