Racine will receive at least $6.6 million in federal stimulus money and could receive another $3.8 million, according to the latest figures from city Grants Facilitator Debbi Embry.
Racine has already been awarded three grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development totaling $3.251 million. The grants include $534,000 in Community Development Block Grant money, $817,000 to help families in danger of losing their homes and $1.9 million to buy old homes and renovate or demolish them.
The city also received $795,000 from the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency Block Grant program for LED lights and loans to homeowners.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded Racine $2.45 million to purchase buses and install swipe card readers.
The U.S. Department of Justice awarded the city $140,000 for a variety of projects including support for the Racine County District Attorney’s Office, Video System Upgrades, Mobile Data Computer Upgrades, Phoenix CAD/RMS Consultant and Phoenix CAD/RMS System Upgrades.
The city is still waiting to hear how much stimulus money its Health Department will receive for immunizations.
Despite being told it will receive the grant, the city has yet to receive a dollar in federal stimulus money, Embry said.
Racine is also applying for several competitive grants for stimulus money. They include:
* $500,000 for a Brownfield Job Training program to train low-income residents how to clean up old industrial sites for redevelopment.
* $813,000 from the Department of Justice to hire three COP officers
* $500,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency for purchasing six new vehicles and a generator engine in the safety building. All will burn "clean diesel."
* $800,000 for an RCEDC program for job training.
The city's Water and Wastewater Utility submitted four loan applications to cover portions of infrastructure projects.
Four applications are in the works, including $2 million to help build a new fire station, $250,000 to help local nonprofits build capacity to apply for grants and $25,000 for an "Innovative Law Enforcement Program."
$800,000 for an RCEDC program for job training.
ReplyDeleteA first for RCEDC! Doing something other then no bid Web pages!!
Thinking how much of this will be needed for "managing"?
Where is Dickert's Madison / Washington expertise going to get us some of that money that is promised?
ReplyDeleteIts not unusual for grant monies to be received by an organization several months after being approved for funding. Is the delay really of concern or is Debbi just complaining for nothing?
ReplyDeleteI still don't get how we hired a woman who ran the YWCA into the ground financially to head our city's grant division.
I see Dickert is coming under fire from he NAACP now. I LOVE it!! Time to splain' yourself. And oh, by the way, I'm a "White" guy.
ReplyDeleteGotta get my popcorn ready....YEEHAW!!
Good Ole' Boy System.
Debbi wasn't complaining. I just asked her if the city had seen any money yet, and she said no.
ReplyDeleteGood old boys...
ReplyDeleteDickert and Becker
Where is the NAACP attacking Dickert. Quit makin it up.
Here we go again with the city dabbling in real estate speculation. NONE of this money should be used to buy old homes or property. It is not government's business to be in direct competition with the city's real estate businesses or real estate speculators. But, Dickert comes from the real estate business and, as I have mentioned before, get ready for the city to delve even deeper into this business and spend, and risk, even more taxpayer dollars that we can not afford.
ReplyDeleteAs far as getting money from the state or the Fed, that is something we should not do. I don't think most of you realize that there's two problems with that: first, the vast majority of that money is not free (it has to be paid back, with interest), and second IT'S YOUR TAX DOLLARS!!! The more they give us as a city, the more they take out of our individual pockets! WAKE UP!!! We need to put the money we do have to better use. Instead of spending $50K on that stupid, ugly sculpture that now sits in a vacant lot next to the railroad tracks on Washington Ave., I think that money could have been put to much better use elsewhere in the city. In times of plenty, when there's a surplus of cash, spend a little on crap like that. But, in times when we're in a depression and everyone is financially strapped, don't waste money on something as stupid as a "feel good" art project!!!!
Downtown Denizen is right: blowing fifty grand on Nic Noblique's junkyard art is an obscenity. The Waxtrash Corporate Crime Family--which promotes such nonsense while dodging its property taxes--ought to be made to pay for that piece of crap. If we're lucky, God's poor will cart it off and peddle it for scrap.
ReplyDeleteDowntown Denizen is right: blowing fifty grand on Nic Noblique's junkyard art is an obscenity. The Waxtrash Corporate Crime Family--which promotes such nonsense while dodging its property taxes--ought to be made to pay for that piece of crap. If we're lucky, God's poor will cart it off and peddle it for scrap.
ReplyDelete