Mayor Alex Morse decided to use $450,000 of the $1.07 million Community Development Block Grant for the 2 projects.
File photo | The Republican — This could be a scene in Holyoke sometime next year as plans proceed for a skateboard park.HOLYOKE — The city would build a skateboard park for $250,000 and fix $200,000 worth of sidewalks among other items Mayor Alex B. Morse has chosen to fund with a federal grant.
“I’m very excited about this year’s recipients,” Morse said Tuesday.
“It’s important to support our city’s young people. This has been a project on the Youth Vision Map for over a decade. Furthermore, young people are forced to skateboard in public parking facilities and other locations that aren’t designed for skate boarders, which puts both the young people and the city at risk. I look forward to working with our city’s youth to pick a location and construct a good design,” he said.
The city’s share of the Community Development Block Grant for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is $1,066,087, he said.
That’s down from the current year’s $1.2 million, which dropped 16 percent from the previous year’s $1.4 million.
“The needs of the city and its residents have increased, yet the funding has decreased. The city received more than double the amount of requests than the funding available. Difficult choices had to be made,” Morse said.
The money can be used to improve housing, the living environment and economic opportunities, primarily for low- to moderate-income people.
Young people have been asking for a designated area to use skateboards since the late 1990’s, said Teresa M. Shepard, director of the Parks and Recreation Department.
A skateboard park site has yet to be determined. The plan is to have a public hearing, design the park by fall, seek bids from developers in the winter and begin construction in a year, Morse and Shepard said.
“We’re hoping whoever gets the contract (to design) will hold some public hearings and help us find the best site,” Shepard said.
Under federal guidelines, money can be used to fix sidewalks in neighborhoods that meet certain income levels, Morse said.
Among other areas getting the federal money, Morse has approved $200,000 to Olde Holyoke Development Corp. to provide rebates to income-eligible homeowners for repairs; $9,014 for a Freddie the Firetruck, an animated robot used to teach youngsters fire safety; and $10,000 to the Latino Chamber of Commerce to help small businesses with business plans and counseling, he said.
Also, $213,217 of the federal grant will pay for salaries and other administrative costs in the Office for Community Development at City Hall.
The process of determining which groups and projects get funding consists of leaders of such areas filing applications and the City Council Redevelopment Committee holding hearings, with the final decision the mayor’s.