Officials: CDBG funding needed

Staff report

Officials in Trumbull and Mahoning counties, as well as in Youngstown and Struthers, are concerned that cuts in federal spending might eliminate a program that has been beneficial to the Mahoning Valley.

The Trumbull County commissioners and planning commission have written a letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to continue to fund the Community Development Block Grant program.

The letter says officials have heard the president may be thinking about cutting $1 billion from the program — or 25 percent — in the 2012 budget.

“We hope those reports are wrong because any substantive reduction in funding for CDBG would have a devastating impact on Trumbull County residents and businesses,” the letter says.

It says reductions “would hinder our ability to continue doing our part to aid the nation’s economic recovery and eliminate public health threats throughout our county due to inadequate sanitary sewer infrastructure.”

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency ordered the county to build sewers in more than a dozen areas across the county, and CDBG money has been integral to the funding “for each of these multi-million dollar projects, as the majority of them are in low- and moderate-income areas,” the letter states.

Mahoning County oversees and coordinates CDBG allocations for home repairs for low income households, for demolition of abandoned structures and for water supply and sewer improvements.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was cut just simply because of the downshift in spending that we may be seeing,” in the federal government, county Commissioner John A. McNally IV said of the CDBG program.

McNally said he believes Congress would have to authorize any cut in the program.

If the program is cut 25 percent nationally, “it would be very detrimental to cities like Struthers and Campbell and some of the townships,” McNally said.

Local communities compete each spring for CDBG funds for “water and sewer projects and infrastructure projects that the townships and some of these smaller cities don’t have the means to fund” by themselves, he added.

Competitive CDBG projects generally require a 50 percent local match.

“We’ll lobby” against any proposed cuts, said McNally, who is chairman of the commissioners.

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams said a cut would have a “very dramatic and adverse effect on cities across the nation.”

“It’s probably the most flexible and beneficial source of funding. It goes for infrastructure, job creation, police and fire forces, and public health issues,” Williams said.

Williams said CDBG funding has been used to expand policing in city neighborhoods, assist in purchasing equipment for the fire department and infrastructure projects, such as paving and demolition.

“It provides such a broad range of assistance that a cut would absolutely have a tragic effect on our citizens,” Williams said.

In Struthers, the mayor is adding his voice in the chorus of municipal administrators who don’t want to see a CDBG cut.

“I jumped on board with everyone else,” said Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker. “We might be a small city, but these programs have a direct impact on our residents.”

Stocker said that after he got word of the possible cuts, he sent a letter to Obama saying that a reduction in CDBG funds would be “devastating” to the city.

At risk would be programs that include downtown facade renovation for businesses, the downtown transportation enhancement program, the street improvement program and the Community Housing Improvement Program, or CHIP.

The Ohio Department of Development administers the federal grants, said Stocker and Struthers Auditor Tina Morell. CHIP is a separate, two-year program that provides money for home repairs, home down-payment assistance, emergency assistance to prevent a foreclosure and help with rental properties. The city got $500,000 in 2009, and is about half-way through it, Morell said.

Morell said the city received $57,000 in other CDBG funds last year. Stocker said $17,000 was earmarked for the business facade program, Frank Street was resurfaced at $32,400 and $6,600 was spent on administrative costs.