Marietta City Council's finance committee will begin work on the 2013 Community Development Block Grant budget in the next couple of weeks, but without knowing exactly how much the city will receive from the entitlement grant next year.
"We're basing the budget on the $336,000 that we received this year, but we've also seen a 16 percent decrease in the funding in each of the last couple of years," development director Andy Coleman told the finance committee Thursday.
The annual CDBG entitlement, from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, has dwindled from more than $520,000 in 2010 to $336,663 this year, and Coleman said there's no guarantee that the city will receive the same amount in 2013.
But HUD requires the city to develop a proposed budget for spending each year's CDBG monies several months before the exact amount of the grant is determined by the federal government.
Council members had based the 2012 budget on the more than $400,000 grant the city received in 2011, but when the amount of the grant was finally announced in June, it was 16.5 percent less than expected.
The reduction forced council to make several cuts to the budget, including $19,000 in annual funding for police bike and foot patrols.
Fact Box
If you go
- Marietta City Council will meet Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the community building at Lookout Park. All council meetings, except executive sessions, are open to the public.
- Marietta city offices will be closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday.
- For more city information, go to http://www.mariettaoh.net/
On Thursday Coleman distributed a list of recommended projects that could be funded by the CDBG monies, garnered from two public meetings that were held in June.
"These are projects requested by the public and by ward councilmen," he said, noting some of the highest funding requests came from the city engineering department for installation of Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant curb ramps during the 2013 citywide asphalt paving program.
More than $66,000 was used from this year's grant to help fund the 2012 paving program.
Engineering also asked for $17,000 in 2013 CDBG funds to be set aside toward a future project to upgrade Fort Harmar Drive.
Coleman said another $50,000 would still be needed to do that project.
Councilman Tom Vukovic, D-4th Ward, and chairman of the finance committee, asked his fellow committee members to review the pages of requests submitted during the public meetings.
"In about two weeks we'll start work on the 2013 CDBG budget," he said.
