City looks for improvement grants

Carson City is applying to the state for nearly $300,000 for projects to help seniors and community economic development.

Carson City was supposed to become an entitlement community in 2001 -- a federal designation which would have allowed the city to directly receive federal Housing and Urban Development funds.

But a federal snafu cost the city its entitlement status and $429,000 in HUD funding. Federal officials are working to correct the problem. Meanwhile, the state received an extra $349,000 to include Carson City in its annual HUD community development block grant program which distributes around $3 million to Nevada's 27 rural cities and counties.

Rob Joiner, city economic development/redevelopment manager, said while "we see that as our money," the city still has to go through all the motions of the application process.

He said about $52,000 of the grant would be used for administrative costs, leaving nearly $297,000 for projects.

Carson City supervisors today will give priorites for projects for the funds. Topping a proposed priority list is $25,000 for a mobile home relocation study.

Joiner said a number of mobile and manufactured home areas are near or adjacent to commercial property that could be better utilized if the homes were moved. But a study has to be done first to see if such movement is feasible.

Block grants in 1998 funded $130,000 for the city's senior center expansion, and the city may request $20,000 to replace the center's kitchen floor.

The biggest request is $180,000 to improve North Deer Run Road.

"When Starbucks Roasting Co. looked at Douglas County and Fernley, we asked ourselves, 'Why weren't we seriously considered?'" Joiner said. "They said the area that had the land zoned for what they needed to do was off Deer Run Road, and the area was not in a condition that would be in concert with their corporate identity."

Improvements would include widening the road, adding curbs, some landscaping and reconstructing the existing road. Joiner said the improvements could help draw "quality industries" and would help "create a gateway to one of our prime commercial areas."

Wish list items which supervisors could include on the funding list include $136,000 in improvements to Hot Springs Road, which would add sidewalks, curbs and gutters to a pedestrian-heavy area. About $20,000 is requested for pedestrian and planter improvements to East Proctor Street, and $70,000 could go toward making the Carson City Community Center more accessible to the disabled.

IF YOU GO

What: Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting

When: 8:30 a.m. today

Where: Carson City Community Center's Sierra Room, 851 E. William St.