The Brunswick Finance Committee mentioned the finer factors of a $6 million grant to cowl repairs and set up hurricane-resistant home windows in St. Mark’s Towers.
The Georgia Division of Neighborhood Affairs awarded the grant.
Roxane George, town’s Neighborhood Growth Block Grant-Catastrophe Restoration supervisor, stated town will not be on the hook for any matching funds. Metropolis Finance Director Kathy Mills stated town could incur some prices in managing the undertaking and monitoring progress, however George stated the grant would cowl these prices after the actual fact.
Brunswick Mayor Cosby Johnson requested George to offer the complete Metropolis Fee with an estimate of the whole price to town earlier than Wednesday’s fee assembly and to hunt reimbursement of these prices from the DCA.
Johnson and Metropolis Commissioner Felicia Harris are the committee’s two voting members.
The Metropolis Fee will contemplate formally accepting the grant funds at its Wednesday assembly, scheduled for six p.m. in Outdated Metropolis Corridor, 1229 Newcastle St. in Brunswick.
The cash is now accessible as a result of the DCA amended its motion plan, which allowed it to award grant funding for repairs and initiatives to mitigate future hurricane harm.
St. Mark’s Towers serves low-income seniors in impartial dwelling preparations, she stated.
“The roof wasn’t in nice form, lots of the home windows had points,” George stated. “They bought sufficient FEMA cash to patch that up they usually managed to get the roof repaired this previous yr, and now we now have the cash to make their home windows hurricane-resistant.”
Funds may also go towards changing heating and cooling models within the 150 condominium models, that are just like these present in lodge rooms, she stated.
St. Mark’s Towers was established in 1982 through a partnership with St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Brunswick and the U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth. Operated by the nonprofit St. Mark’s Towers Basis, backed by HUD and supported by the area people, hire at St. Mark’s is capped at not more than 30% of an accepted resident’s gross earnings.
In different enterprise, Johnson and Harris had been in favor of partaking an electrical energy auditing firm to assist the municipal authorities get monetary savings on energy payments.
All town fee must do is allow metropolis workers members to offer the corporate with 12 months of energy payments. The corporate would then conduct an audit and decide how and the place town can get monetary savings on electrical energy.
Town wouldn’t pay the corporate up entrance, Mills stated.
“Nevertheless, we’d agree to offer them 50% of the financial savings realized for 4 years,” Mills stated. “… We don’t have anybody who can analyze these payments and is an professional in how a lot issues ought to price.”
Assistant Metropolis Supervisor Jeremiah Bergquist introduced ahead a proposal to rent a agency known as Utility Administration Providers. He stated he believed town would see substantial financial savings at first, however that these financial savings could decline over time.
Johnson favored the concept however didn’t wish to leap on the first alternative. He wished to know if town can get a greater deal from one other firm earlier than taking the proposal to the complete metropolis fee.
The finance committee additionally:
• Really useful town fee approve a decision establishing a brand new Georgia Fund 1 account during which town can deposit federal funds obtained through the American Rescue Plan Act. The advice was contingent on receiving some clarification on the small print of the account. Georgia Fund 1 is an area authorities funding pool administered by the state Workplace of the Treasurer that gives very favorable rates of interest.
• Heard July monetary studies from Director Mills.
