March 20, 2008
County Request Approved for CDBG Grant

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

A request by Lincoln County for $190,000 to have engineering work completed at the Alamo Industrial Park was approved during a recent meeting of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Advisory Committee.

In making her report at the March 17 County Commission meeting, Lincoln County Grant Administrator Phyllis Robistow, a member of the advisor committee, said Lincoln County’s project request was ranked last in priority order, yet was the only one that was recommended for full funding.

However, she said some members of the advisory committee expressed concern that the Alamo Industrial Park was too large a project for Lincoln County. She said there are four CDBG funded industrial parks around the state which remain empty. At the plant in Hawthorne, Peninsula Floors, a California company that once expressed interest in locating at the Alamo Industrial Park, cancelled their plans for building. Mineral County had received a CDBG grant built around the expectation that Peninsula Floors would locate there.

Lincoln County Manager John Lovelady, who made the presentation to the committee, said the committee is concerned by “recent track records of small rural counties and industrial parks.” Ms. Robistow added if CDBG goes ahead in giving the grant, “They are going to want to see some guarantees pretty soon that we’re going to do it.”

Of the $190,000 grant request, $170,000 is to be used for engineering studies, and $20,000 for administrative needs. Ms. Robistow said about $340,000 remains available for the engineering work; $170,000 remaining monies from USDA, some 2007 CDBG money, and some leftover money from the Regional Development Authority.

She said she thought even though the Lincoln County request was ranked last in priority it was the County’s presentation to the advisory committee that convinced them to recommend full funding. Lovelady said all of the parties interested in locating in the Industrial Park submitted recent letters, since November 2007, expressing their continued commitment to locate there.

She told Commissioners the CDBG Advisory Committee suggested the County investigate the possibility of one of the developers at the Alamo Industrial Park as a partner. The Commission took no action on the suggestion.

The recommendations to CDBG Board will be reviewed over the next couple of months and a final announcement is expected in June. Ms. Robistow has said in the past, the Board usually grants the applications recommended by the advisory committee.