City can absorb loss of grant; efforts to regain money continuing
From our weekly issue dated January 30, 2008
In the wake of the city having to pay for a grant of $441,666, snowy weather may have contributed to an unexpectedly light turnout of some 17 persons at Monday night’s council meeting in Cave Junction City Hall.
Amid what one person termed the “hubbub” surrounding the city’s loss of a state grant for expenditures toward extending infrastructure to the new Siskiyou Community Health Center (SCHC), city officials spent little time publicly discussing the situation.
The cost to develop the water and sewer connections was to be reimbursed through a grant from the Oregon Economic & Community Development Dept. (OECDD). It has been withdrawn due to “repeated failure” by the city to clear findings in conflict with grant requirements.
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The city has absorbed the grant loss through its Water/Sewer Development Fund, but had included the grant in its budget.
Among the few members of the public to speak on the topic, O’Brien resident Daniel Dalegowski asked what strategy the city might employ with respect to the grant. Mayor Tony Paulsen replied, “We are going to aggressively pursue making concessions and try to get the award still honored.
“We have some aggressive avenues that we think are positive … we don’t know if they’re legal,” he said, prompting general laughter, “but we know they’re positive.”
He added that the city actively is seeking documents from SCHC and Copeland Sand & Gravel that were required by the state but, according to OECDD, were never provided by City Recorder Jim Polk, who administered the grant.
“Siskiyou’s (SCHC) had some problems getting the information to us,” said the mayor. “Copeland’s had some problems getting the information to us. And we had problems, apparently, getting the information out.
“We’re going to correct them all and actively pursue this. We’re not sitting on our butts saying ‘Oh well!’,”
The comments came after the council returned from an hour-long executive (closed to the public) session, but Paulson declined to comment on any personnel action that may have been discussed. And the council took no action related to the closed session after reconvening into regular session.
“Right now we are aware of what the problems are; we’re aware of the situation we’re in,” said Paulson. “We’re going to take the positive forward steps to correct it the best we can and from there we’ll let you know what else is going on. That’s about it for now. There’s more to come.”
Polk likewise declined to comment on the situation.
SCHC CEO Kurt Higuera said during a telephone interview Monday that he was unaware of any problems with the grant until two weeks ago. He said that he was contacted by Paulson and informed of a problem. Higuera said that he was told that “a city employee” had made serious errors in the paperwork and that Paulson needed to know the status of the 13 jobs that are required to be created by federal law to comply with the grant pact.
SCHC will be in full compliance with the job requirements by the April 15, 2008 deadline, Higuera said. The deadline was established as one-year after completion of the work.
Ann Hanus, Community Development Division manager for OECDD, was asked, during a telephone interview, what effect this documentation would have on the withdrawn grant. Hanus stated that the job requirement is only one of many problems with the grant administration, and that she foresees no change in the grant status until the city fully complies with all the concerns brought by the state.
Paulson, meanwhile, insists that the city has submitted the paperwork, and that it’s “just a matter of locating the documents within the state. We maintain that we have fulfilled all the documents,” he said.
The council will hold a workshop to interview candidates to replace the late Councilor Lynne Atteberry Thursday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. Applications to fill the vacancy will be accepted and reviewed as well.
(Managing Editor Michelle Binker contributed to this story.)
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