The Addison Township Board of Trustees voted unanimously Nov. 19 to allocate $15,860 of their 2008 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money to fund eligible projects that primarily benefit low and moderate-income residents.
North Oakland Transportation Authority (NOTA) will receive $4,637, Oxford/Addison Youth Assistance will get $2,500, the Addison Township Fire Department will receive $5,000 and $3,723 will go to the township’s Housing Rehabilitation program.
OAYA will use the money for their Adopt-A-Camper program, which benefits at-risk youth who might not be able to afford to go to various day camps.
The money being put into the Housing Rehabilitation program is used for projects to bring the homes of low-income persons in the township up to a decent, safe, sanitary condition.
Although the board agreed to delegate the money toward that specific program, Clerk Pauline Bennett said she hopes to reprogram some of that money into another area at a later date.
‘I don’t think that program should receive all this money, so we need to research this,? she said.
The fire department will use the $5,000 CDBG fund allocation to complete a bike path in front of the Station #1 facility on Forest Rd. in the Village of Leonard.
Fire Chief George Spencer said the bike path was part of a village site plan that was approved in 2003 before the new station was built.
The money from the 2008 CDBG fund cannot be spent until June of next year.
Because the technicalities as to where local governments can spend their CDBG money is so narrow, Supervisor Bob Koski said it’s hard to put money toward other projects that may need the money just as much.
‘There’s a lot of strings attached to federal government money,? he said.