Community And Economic Development Committee Approves $80,000 Neighborhood Grant To Upgrade Columbus Elementary Playground

The Community and Economic Development Committee met 10/11/2023. The one action item on their agenda was a request to award approximately $80,000 in neighborhood grant funds to the Historic Central Neighborhood to help fund improvements to the playground at Columbus Elementary School.

A number of neighborhood residents attended the meeting and eight of them spoke in support of granting the funds. They highlighted the way in which the playground was used not only by the school but as a park for the entire neighborhood. They also expressed concern about the lack of grass on the current playground and the desire for more green space.

After the committee confirmed with staff that this project met the requirements to be awarded Community Development Block Grant dollars through the Neighborhood Grant Program and that there were not a lot of other neighborhoods currently vying for those funds, they voted to approve the request to award $79,999.73

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.

The proposed project would add playground equipment and create additional green space at the Columbus Elementary School playground. They entire project was expected to cost $91,500, and the city currently had $79,999.73 available as Community Development Block Grants through the Neighborhood Grant Program. City staff recommended awarding that full amount to the project.

The available funds were what remained from Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds that were first set aside for the Neighborhood Grant Program in 2018 and 2019. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development requires CDBG funds to be spend down within 7 years, so there was still time to use this money but staff felt this project would be a good way to use these funds in a timely manner.

Additionally, there were a lot of eligibility requirements that came along with federal dollars which this project specifically met quite well. Although Columbus Elementary itself was not in a low to moderate income neighborhood, it served a low-to-moderate income population. Additionally, it had a project partner in the shape of the Appleton Area School District which was willing to execute and manage the project.

Alderperson Denise Fenton asked Community and Economic Development Director David Kress to clarify how this project met the low-to-moderate income requirements when the neighborhood itself was not necessarily a low-to-moderate income neighborhood.

Deputy Director Kress explained, “In this case, the national objective that’s being met is that it’s serving a low to moderate income population. So, while the school site itself isn’t located in low to moderate income Census Block Group, we’ve taken the approach to identify a service area for the site, which goes beyond obviously, just the boundaries of the school site itself. And in running the demographic data for that service area, which is the boundaries of the neighborhood, which we feel are very reasonable and adequate, that was found to be an LMI, low to moderate income service area. So, it checks that box and meets that requirement from a CDBG standpoint.”

Alderperson Vaya Jones (District 10) asked if allocating these funds for this project would take them away from other neighborhood groups seeking funds. In theory, it would, but the city had not received any project applications in recent years, which is why the money was still available.

The committee voted unanimously to approve the request to award the grant funds.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1115907&GUID=78BDA405-0A7A-4445-ACB9-ED70A1080262