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STEUBENVILLE -- Mayor Ralph Petrella told council Tuesday they need to update the city's comprehensive and CDBG community action plans if they're going to have any shot at getting government grant dollars.
Petrella said he and Councilman Royal Mayo recently met with Housing & Urban Development state and federal officials who told them they won't have a prayer of tapping into the grant pool without having a new comprehensive plan in place.
"The comprehensive plan is of the utmost importance," he said. "It lays out (our plans) for government agencies and officials to see where we are and the steps we want to take to be where we want to be. Every meeting I've had regarding economic development and growth it's been brought up that our current plan--from 2013, I believe--is very out-of-date, especially with all the changes in the city that have happened this year alone."
Petrella said budgeting for and obtaining the comprehensive plan is "vital to our future."
The city's current comprehensive plan is about 12 years old, Petrella said. Getting a new one in place was top priority on Urban Development Director Jessica Gumm's wish list for 2027, though she'd also warned council it could cost around $150,000 to get done.
"Those two plans they said are vital," Petrella said. "Those are the first things that the federal government wants to know about...for any grant (opportunities) coming up. The other thing we talked about was quality of life for our HUD recipients, how that needs to be improved. We talked about (funding) for repairs...so if we have a condemned building that is bought off of the list, there is money available for them to get rehabs."
Mayo said the HUD officials told him in order to improve the quality of life for those living in public housing, it needs to be spread over a broader area and not just concentrated in one part of town.
While he's not sure of how they're going to do it, Mayo said the HUD team advised that at some point in the near future CDBG funding is going to be tied to housing, "and if we're not spending any CDBG on housing, our CDBG funding is going to drop.”
"He said it's going to be vital that we do something for housing, particularly with our CDBG funds" and improve the quality of life, Mayo said. "He said...it's going to be vital that you do something for housing, particularly with CDBG funds...whoever's not doing it pretty much isn't going to get funds, so we're going to have to come up with some plans."
In other matters:
*Council sunshined ordinances authorizing City Manager Mike Johnson to execute the contract for the waterline and roadway improvement project along the 1200 block of Wellesley Avenue as well as a cooperative agreement with the Jefferson County Engineer for paving a portion of County Road 43 in city limits.
*Mayo questioned "what the hours are, what programs are going to be cut" at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in the wake of scheduling changes, "because I think our biggest resources are kids. I think that keeping just one kid out of trouble and out of the system...is worth so much."
"I'd like to know what the plan is, how we're going to make sure that our kids are in a center and not bothering people walking through Walmart like they used to do," he said.
*Law Director Costa Mastros told council he expects to have a draft parking ordinance ready for their consideration soon. He said Municipal Judge John Mascio had reviewed the draft and made some suggestions that will likely be incorporated in the final version.
Once it's in place, he reminded council they'll need to look at hiring a parking attendant. "It's budget time, you might what to think about that," he added.
*Johnson said police and fire contracts expire at the end of the year, so negotiations will begin soon. He said department heads are also working on snow removal plans.