Cleveland Heights to Receive More Block Grant Money Than Anticipated

Cleveland Heights City Council members have made it no secret that by the federal government to the vital hurt the city.

But they finally got some good news.

The city will receive about $250,000 more in block grant money than officials originally thought. The program helps pay for street and sewer maintenance, housing programs, youth programs, food banks and senior programs, just to name a few.

Nancy McLaughlin, development officer in the Cleveland Heights who administers the grant, has to guess several months in advance what the Cleveland Heights allocation will be. Her decision comes in August, but the actual number sometimes isn’t released until as late as May of the following year.

“I never know how the winds are going to prevail in D.C.,” McLaughlin said.  “It’s great that we are able to keep more money than anticipated, and it’s much easier to do what we’re doing this year than last year when we had to cut so much because we got so much less than we anticipated.”

In 2010, the city received $1.9 million. That number was trimmed down to $1.6 million in 2011. McLaughlin estimated, based on her conversations with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and colleagues in other cities, that Cleveland Heights would get about $1.2 million this year.  

The city will actually get $1,446,726, said Richard Wong, planning and development director for the city. He just found out the third week of January.

“Nancy tries her best to not give City Council a number too high so they’re forced into another round of cuts. This puts us in a better position. Council made the hard decisions last year, and now we’re faced with the ability to grant the programs more,” Wong said.

Organizations and groups that receive the money include the , , Cleveland Heights Office on Aging, Cleveland Tenants Organization and the , among several others. The money is also used to fix water lines and pave streets. (The street repair must last eight years to qualify, McLaughlin said.) A full list of who receives funding and how much is included with this article.

Wong said that the Citizens Advisory Committee, which gives recommendations to council about how money from the Community Development Block Grant should be distributed, will likely discuss how to divvy up the extra money during its regular meeting Feb. 21.

“When City Council had to make those hard cuts, they really wanted to focus on repairing water lines that were leaky and streets that were filled with pot holes,” Wong said. “Those seemed like priorities that would help everyone in the city given the high cost of those items and diminished state funding — that seemed like an obvious one.”

McLaughlin said the CAC will discuss the block grant Feb. 21 as long as the request from the Public Works Department asking to help them pay for infrastructure projects comes through.

There will not be special public meetings for residents to comment on how the money is allocated , but anyone can come to the Citizens Advisory Committee meetings and share their thoughts, McLaughlin said.

“It's excellent news ... The funds are invaluable to what we do. Our biggest asset is our housing and keeping our streets in good shape.”