JARRETT GOODMAN
Staff Writer
During New Hope’s March city meeting, members of its Board of Mayor & Aldermen (BoMA) agreed to apply for a new CDGB (Community Development Block Grant) grant following ongoing plans to revitalize the town’s public park.
Prior to the application’s approval, several updates surrounding the city’s progress with the project was shared, among one of them concerning surveys being sent to residents of the community. Each survey sent, mentioned by Mayor Billy Frame, required information regarding one’s household and income, as well as the populous’ interests in utilizing the park.
According to City Recorder Morgan Lawson, once filled the surveys will help provide the city a greater chance of earning the grant funds needed to officially begin work on revitalizing the community park. The more surveys filled out and submitted, the better the opportunity the city has of receiving the grant funds, and the deadline to submit all the surveys is Friday, March 13.
Lawson also assured residents all information provided will not be inspected by the city, ensuring all information would remain under wraps until reviewed by members of Southeast Tennessee Development District (SETD).
“If you get that survey, we’re not being nosey and we don’t even get to see it,” Lawson said. “It’s all for the grant people, so we won’t even get to look at it.”
As the meeting progressed, all members of the board were presented with two resolutions to vote on: to approve the application for the CDBG grant and for an additional LPRF (Local Parks and Recreation Fund) grant. The board decided to apply for the CDBG grant first and table the LPRF grant application for next month’s meeting. Vice Mayor Josh Lawson explained because of the LPRF grant requiring a 50% match in funds to pay back towards the state, the board felt more time is needed to further decide upon exact numbers before moving forward with the LPRF grant, whereas the CDBG grant only requires a 16% city match.
“We don’t have any exact numbers for the LPRF grant, and it requires a 50% city match,” Josh said. “So if they come back and say ‘We’re going to give you $500,000’, we got to come up with $250,000 just to match them. So that one we’re kind of trying to be careful with.”
While the LPRF application remains tabled until the town’s next meeting, scheduled for Monday, April 6 at 5 p.m., the BoMA still await and hope to receive potential funds needed from the CDBG grant to begin work on the city’s ongoing public park project.