By DANIEL LOCKE | Staff Writer
CALERA
– The Calera City Council held a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, June 16. The approval of completing the city’s application for the Community Development Block Grant was the topic of discussion during the meeting.
Shelby County received an Urban County Designation in 2023, increasing the funding available for low-income areas throughout the jurisdiction through a grant program.
Grant writer Cara Stallman was present at the meeting to explain the specifics of the grant and what went into getting approval for it.
The city applied for a similar grant recently, but was denied due to a mistake made when filling out the application.
“About a million dollars goes to Shelby County, and Shelby County breaks it down into smaller chunks. We applied for one of those chunks earlier in the year, but unfortunately because of an administrative error, that one wasn’t eligible” Stallman said.
The grant money is meant to be used to help smaller communities in the county. The funds can be used to help clean up areas in low-income parts of the city that are dealing with blight. There are certain criteria that has to be met for the grant funds to be eligible for use, pertaining to the property that the project would be clearing.
“You can use it for removal of slum and blighted houses,” Stallman said. “The house has to be vacant for over six months and the grant would identify that house. You would have to come in and do an asbestos survey and jump through lots of hoops as always. The grant would pay for removal and clearing.”
The council approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Jon Graham to sign any close out documents needed for the application.
In other news, the council approved funding for the installation of new fencing at Ricky M. Cairns Football Stadium, appointed City Clerk Connie Payton as the election manager and absentee election manager for the Municipal Election on Tuesday, Aug. 26 and established the use of electronic vote counting devices.
The next regularly scheduled council meeting is set to take place on Monday, July 7, at 6:30 p.m. with a work session scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Calera City Council meetings take place at City Hall, located at 7901 Highway 31.
