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Campbell applies for grant, meets with state auditors
CAMPBELL
The city has once again partnered with Mahoning County and the city of Struthers to apply for the Community Housing Impact and Preservation grant.
If the partnership secures the grant, the cities will receive $350,000 and the county $450,000 to use on renovating properties and infrastructure in poor neighborhoods.
On March 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Campbell City Hall, the city will have a public meeting regarding the funding. Homeowners who believe they might benefit are encouraged to attend the meeting and apply to have their project funded.
The partnership missed out on more than a million dollars’ worth of funding in 2017 when a grant proposal prepared by the county was passed over by the state.
Phillip Puryear, a department head at the Mahoning County Lead Hazard Control who will prepare the grant, said this year the partnership is likely to secure the funding.
Also in Campbell, state auditors met with the city’s finance director Friday to review the city’s budget. At Wednesday’s council caucus, the board was cautioned that the city may have more than one fund – including the general fund – in the red. The city will have firm numbers regarding the budget by Monday.
Council President George Levendis said city administrators asked the state auditors to visit them and review their finances so the city could develop departmental budgets that would help right Campbell’s current financial course.
“Based on what these numbers look like, we’re going to draw up aggressive budgets, and we expect our department heads to stick to those budgets or else we’re going to have to look at doing what we’ve got to do to save money,” Levendis said.