Grand Forks Community Development Grants for 2025 will focus on homelessness prevention and assistance

Oct. 28—GRAND FORKS — The Grand Forks City Council discussed the proposed budget for the 2025 Community Development Block Grant and Community Service Grant programs during the Committee of the Whole meeting Monday evening.

The City Council annually reviews and approves how the City will allocate funds for these capital and operating grants. This year there is less money available overall than last year, about $455,000 less, with most of the decreases coming from the Community Development Block Grant – or CDBG – money the city receives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Staff recommends that the Community Advisory Committee and City Council emphasize relative project readiness to ensure timely project completion,” said Collin Hanson, community development manager. “We’ve had a challenge with that in recent years.”

The problem was especially acute for the CDBG funds, as the amount available was higher than normal.

This is due to the sale of the Corporate Centers, which were financed by the program; when they were sold,

the money went back into the CDBG program. An increased amount available under the program, combined with project delays, meant the city had not met HUD’s on-time expenditure requirement. Failure to meet this requirement could mean future problems with what the city receives from HUD.

“Right now I think we’re under a microscope,” City Manager Todd Feland said. “We need to give it to organizations that can actually implement it, not just hope they can.”

Another change this year was increasing the amount of funding provided through the Community Services Grant program for operating grants. The maximum amount was increased from $30,000 to $50,000. This year’s applications will prioritize homelessness prevention and assistance. The municipality will do that too

receive updates on the next five-year consolidated action plan at the meeting next week,

according to Hanson. Additionally, the staff, community advisory committee and city council agree more than they do

were last year when they all had different recommendations for the budget.

During the meeting, the council also discussed an amendment to this proposal

the RAISE subsidy consultancy contract.

The application for a grant to rebuild America’s infrastructure with sustainability and equity,

which would help fund the planning and environmental documentation for any new Red River crossing within the Grand Forks metropolitan area,

is led by East Grand Forks with cooperation from Grand Forks, Grand Forks County and Polk County. The last application was unsuccessful and East Grand Forks would like support to reapply and potentially be more competitive.

The Grand Forks City Council voted 3-2 to move the approval to next week. In their dissent, council members Tricia Lunski and Ken Vein disagreed with previous council action to limit their support to just a bridge on Merrifield Road.

“We can’t afford to go all the way from the Point Bridge to Merrifield Road without having an intercity bridge,” Vein said. “I’m not inclined to go any further when the fact is that we’re not going to look further at anything other than this because it doesn’t solve the intercity bridge problem.”

In 2023 and early 2024, the council has been divided by discussions about intercity bridges and the location on the Grand Forks side of the river. Additionally, leaders from East Grand Forks and Grand Forks have done so as well

did not agree on the location and a formal location was not mentioned in the current planning documentation.

Grand Forks-East Stephanie Halford, executive director of the Grand Forks Metropolitan Planning Organization, has recommended that the intercity bridge can never be completely expunged from the historical record.

“You’re never going to be able to fully extract it because it’s been presented in committees. It’s been presented in different boards. It’s been at public input meetings (and)

we have received comments back,” Halford told the Herald in 2023.

“(If noted), what (are the comments) referring to? I wouldn’t be surprised if the transportation departments wanted an updated presentation because the document would feel different.”

The grant helps pay for costs that would be incurred regardless of a bridge’s location. A bridge at Merrifield Road would also mean the project would likely have to be led by Polk County or Grand Forks County, since the site is outside the city limits.

Other news from the municipality:

* Recommended approval

a change order for the Columbia Road overpass project.

City Engineer Al Grasser said the lanes should end this week, but a complete closure of the bridge to repair the structure’s bearings would likely happen next year.

* Recommended to approve a license agreement with Everynet

This allows the city to remotely monitor the new water meters it is installing.

Many cities,

including East Grand Forks,

use a similar system. It means a city employee doesn’t have to drive around collecting data from water meters.