City searching for equipment, PPE funds
For the second time in a row, the city of Cumby approved the pursuit of the Texas Department of Agriculture community development block grant for 2021-2022 and aims to apply for the maximum $350,000 award, according discussion during Tuesday night’s council meeting.
“The two immediate next steps is to schedule and conduct a public hearing hopefully by the end of January and to start the administrative procurement process,” Jake McAdams, regional projects manager with Public Management, said. “Once hired, we’d be able to help the city solicit and bring an engineer on board.”
The city will need to match 5% if awarded, and the grant is given based on a point system with two main criteria: match amount based on population and previous awards. With a population of 777 and matching 5%, Cumby should qualify for all related points, and Cumby has been awarded only once in six years, qualifying them for the second-highest amount of those related points.
“Application scoring and match requirements have substantially changed since previous years, but it appears Cumby may [emphasis theirs] have a somewhat competitive application for an infrastructure grant,” a memo from Public Management read. “To be clear, the scoring and program changes have made it difficult to determine how competitive of an application Cumby may have, and there is no certainty the city will receive a grant award if an application is submitted.”
The grant would be awarded in the fall of 2022, and after administrative and engineering fees are paid, the grant would enough to budget for a $300,000 project, McAdams said.
“If the city is funded, we would still be a ways out from actually doing the work we applied for,” he said in addition.
Mayor Doug Simmerman noted the possible grant could fund well construction, but McAdams noted the costs for wells vary by location. As for what the city will pay for during the application process, McAdams said only the city will only pay for publication fees for three public notices. Administrative and engineering fees are usually contingent upon the award.
“For our services at least, we specifically state we charge zero dollars for an application,” McAdams said. “That’s the way most engineers operate as well.”
The vote was 4-1, with council member Julie Morris voting against. The application is due May 3, 2021.
In other items, the council discussed looking for grants to upgrade safety equipment and/or PPE for the public works department.
“I recently met with all of our maintenance department and asked them as council what can we do to help them,” council member Sheryl Lackey said. “There were some issues they brought up that we need to upgrade. A lot of it is for their safety.”
No formal action was taken, but members noted they could reach out to Chris Brown, the executive director of the Ark-Tex Council of Governments. ATCOG assists with grants if needed.