Agenda Packets - 1999/04/12 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

1:f 1:f 1 of exhibits including maps, letters and other information that we thought was relevant. We asked DTED at that time for$500,000. That is a substantial amount of money but frankly we weren't sure how much DTED was considering awarding. They did not indicate in advance how many grants they were going to give and what the amounts would be. Since it was a new program we thought we would reach a little bit high. We ended up finishing up 10th out of 20-some applicants and they funded the top six and made references to the amounts of the grant and the staff material that I provided. Although the Mermaid project certainly hasn't reached any type of resolution, we are facing a deadline action with this redevelopment grant, and that deadline is April 1. That is the deadline for submitting applications for the second phase of the two phases of the redevelopment grant application process. From the staff report one of our options is to basically update this prior grant application and resubmit it. A fairly substantial amount of work was involved the first time,but frankly it is probably no more than two or three hours of my time to update it, which is basically putting some information in about how the project has progressed since the grant application was submitted before, maybe updating a couple of the exhibits. The fact that the project has not been formally approved, and we turned around and used as an argument in favor of the grant because we could continue to maintain in the absence of grant funds from the state, it may not be financially feasible to do the project. We can perhaps scale back a little bit on the amount of money they are asking for. Of the six grants that were authorized last time, only one of them was over $500,000. As we did the first time, the grant funds would be potentially used for environmental improvement in the vicinity of the project. At the present time, there is a small holding pond located behind the business that is known as Music Off 10. That doesn't take drainage from any area other than some of the parking lots, the business park south. All of the surface drainage'coming off the Mermaid, some of the other businesses nearby,their parking lot, etc., is all basically going right into Rice Creek, along with any salt, sand, motor oil, and anything else that might be in the lot. The Rice Creek Water Shed District has not thus far insisted that the City take some action to prevent that type of runoff, or treat it, but at some point in time,they might, and, at that point in time in the event that we didn't have funds from other sources to deal with it, the City funds would be used for that purpose. We see this as an opportunity to perhaps generate some funds that could be used for this. Mr. Marty asked if there is any commitment at all by asking for the grant. Kevin stated if we finished first with the greatest number of points and they awarded us the full amount of the grant, we can still turn it down. Frankly, if the project had not been finalized at some point, that it was still in progress,they would probably be willing to wait some period of 'i time, but in the event that it wasn't concluded in time, we might just basically lose the grant and they would then turn the money over to one of the other applicants. Mr. Marty asked why is the City applying for it and not the Mermaid? Kevin stated this grant program is set up in a such a fashion that private entities cannot apply for it. It has to be done through some governmental agency, and the governmental agency has to take responsibility for the admission of the grant. There are other types of loan and grant 17 U:\CARIS\COUNCIL\MINUTES\MVCC22.MAR ��I