IURA financial review highlights CDBG reprogramming and South Works award

IURA staff reported to the board on grant- and loan-expenditure tracking and recent reprogramming actions intended to move slow-running projects into more active work.

Speaker 2 told members the agency reprogrammed over $200,000 at a December meeting to shift funds away from slow-moving activities and toward projects that can spend quickly. Staff flagged that December expenditures were light and that the agency aims for roughly $75,000 in monthly spending to keep CDBG obligations on schedule.

Staff noted several active projects expected to increase near-term spending, including the recently completed Cecil Malone sidewalk project and an allocation of $70,000 toward bathrooms and a pavilion rehabilitation at Cast Park. Speaker 2 also described a needed replacement of a malfunctioning fire-alarm panel at the Southside Community Center and said the agency will request DPW perform the work.

Speaker 2 reported that South Works received a state consolidated funding award through the program referred to in the meeting as the 'Achieve' program, saying, "Southworks received a $38,000,000 award," to support infrastructure and hazard-abatement efforts such as the Building 24 HAZMAT remediation. Staff emphasized spending deadlines for several programs (for example, contracts expiring March 31) and said the agency is tracking expenditures to ensure compliance with federal and program rules.

Staff also told the board that some nonprofit applicants declined funding this year because of a new federal requirement that would require entering beneficiary names into a federal database for immigration-status verification; Speaker 2 said some organizations feared putting clients' names into such a database and therefore declined awards. The agency reallocated those declined funds to other public-service projects.

The board set its next meeting for April 17, when staff expects to present the financial audit and public-authorities reporting documents.