Grant money serves Lindsay well

The city of Lindsay has spent over a million dollars in housing assistance, business assistance, and street, sewer, and water improvements over the past few years, the city council was told last week.

It also has a micro business loan available to help income qualified business owners, thanks to grant funds.
Bill Zigler, Planning and Economic Development, and Andrea Scarbrough, a representative of Self Help Enterprises, told the council that three Community Development Block Grants (CDBG),  an Economic Development Block Grant (EDBG) and an Economic Development Enterprise Fund (EDEF) had benefitted the city.

Zigler explained that the purpose of the report was to keep the council and community aware.

“A review of annual performance, what we’ve been doing, and what’s been spent,” said Zigler.

A 2010 CDBG grant for $400,000, with $370,00 being budgeted for home ownership assistance and $30,000 for general administration was given. So far $80,749 has been spent “on purchasing homes and rehabilitating,” said Zigler.

In 2009, an EDEF grant for micro business loans for income qualified persons was awarded in the amount of $187,700. However, as of Tuesday, the city had not been able to disperse the funds due to people not qualifying for the loans. The specific qualifications are r you have to be a resident of Lindsay or own a business inside city limits, income, and business, i.e. you can only have five full-time employees, including the entrepreneur.  

“We had a few applicants, but they weren’t qualified for whatever reason,” said Zigler.

A 2008 CDBG grant, which was under the purview of the Lindsay Redevelopment Agency (RDA) but is now under the purview of the Housing Authority of Tulare County, was used for sewer, water, storm runoffs, and gutter improvements in support of the Sequoia Villas housing project.

A total of $770,803  was spent for infrastructure.

Another $356,895 was provided for Homeowners assistance and $215,489 has been used.

Of this ,$141,406.00 remains g which is used for down payment assistance for qualified, first time home buyers.

A 2005 EDBG grant was used to construct a pipeline extension northwest of town from an orange factory to crops to carry effluent. The grant amount was around $1.8 million and the expended amount so far is $1,733,855 with a remaining balance of $111,144.37 which will be used for the last phase of the project.

Mike Camarena, the City Services director, explained that the third phase is an agricultural well.

Zigler points out that when the project is finished any remaining money will go back to CDBG. This project was undertaken by the California Citrus Producers, Inc. (CCPI,) Main Force.

The last CDBG Loan is a revolving loan account for housing rehabilitation, business assistance, and first time home buyer programs. Tamara Laken, director of finance, explains that it has a balance of $261,789.Income that is generated from these loans is placed back into the balance as program income.