Applicants Make Pitches for Federal Cash

Applicants for federal community development funds stated their cases for the cash before the East Providence City Council Tuesday night in City Hall.

Now you have a chance to comment on the requests and the recommendations for the Community Development Block Grants by the city’s community development director.

David Bachrach, the community development chief in the planning department, presented to the City Council the list of applicants and his recommendations for more than $620,000 in funds – or about 30 percent less than three years ago.

“The budget is shrinking,” he said, which makes the competition for the funds more difficult. 

The list of projects was built from significant public input already, Bachrach said. So, if there are additional significant comments, he said, “we have to come back to the City Council again.” 

Most of the HUD money available to East Providence is targeted for economic development and costs to administer the grants, according to the list provided by Bachrach, or $470,000.

The rest is earmarked for renovating three houses to make them lead-safe and to bring them into compliance with building codes and for a variety of public-service agencies. It was representatives for those agencies who asked the City Councilors to support their requests last night, which range from $2,500 to $60,000. 

Bachrach is recommending far less per request because of the limited funds available, he said. That helps to spread the money around. But the final budget line items will be up to the City Council.

Among the agencies seeking funds is the Weaver Library. A representative said the library would like almost $14,000 to offer four sessions a year of computer literacy training. He brought with him a woman who had no computer skills until she took the library training. That made it difficult for her to apply for jobs, particularly online, he said.

The Bread for Life Food Pantry based at Newman Congregational Church is seeking $7,500 to provide increasingly expensive food for hundreds of families, according to a representative from the ecumenical program, which involves four churches.

The East Bay Community Action Program is seeking $60,000 for its medical/dental program that serves uninsured residents and another $10,000 for its foster grandparent program, which pays stipends for seniors who tutor special-needs children.

The East Providence Prevention Coalition is seeking $17,500 for a program at the high school that offers classes to 500 students on preventing teen dating violence. A teacher and two students at the high school made pitches for City Council support.

See the complete list of 2013-2014 CDBG applicants, their requests and Bachrach’s recommendations by clicking here.