RM 02-03-78 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6. NEW BUSINESS, Continued- Ms � Derbeck: Did I understand you to say that Gary and Evansville also ma a the deadline? And there are only the three Indiana cities? Mr.1 Ellison: Yes, that is correct. Mr. Anderson: A couple of questions - the First Bank Project in the "hole" is contingent upon acceptance of this Grant, now if HUD keeps it pending and it is not approved for the first quarter which, as you indicated, is one of their options—is that going to affect the future of the Project? Say First Bank wants to get this thing up and going by summer, is it possible they might not wait and would drop out? Mr. Ellison: That question has not really been explored, based on what has happened thus far - based on the profile which the bank has taken so far as their personal involvement is concerned, I think if there is a chance for the Project, it will hang together. Mr. Anderson: So..they would be willing to wait - second question - Mr. Ellison: Understand, we think that—our assumption is that it is a good package and we deserve the Grant, now obviously we have to get the approval. Mr. Anderson: I talked to the Mayor about it earlier this week and he said the Application met two of the criteria: one, it got private investment into the downtown and two, it created jobs for the low income sector. Looking at these two criteria, which I guess is the basis of the UDAG Grant, do you have any feeling that it will go through—with your experience in other things, do you have any kind of idea of a percentage you could gi a us..50 -50, 75 -25, 90 -10 ? ?? Carl Ellison: Anybody who gives percentages is guessing—there are a couple of things you have to keep in mind, one is that this is a brand new grant from HUD's perspective and although there are certain guidelines to follow in the regulations, there is much more than that involved in the process and we don't know who at HUD will be involved in the decision nor what factors they will have in mind to look at. Obviously, anything that provides a significant contribution from the private sector and shows benefits to low income people in regard to employment, will benefit the locality in the long run. All the applicants apparently will do these things and assuming everybody has the basics, what values do you use to award the grant to a given locality..since it is a brand new program, none of these things has been tested so no one can really predict what ou chances are. Mr Anderson: The Mayor was very optimistic about the thing—is that a "g ain of salt" kind of optimism, or is it optimism based on..... Mr. Ellison: Its optimism based on the fact that this is an excellent pa kage but I don't think anyone wants to kid the.public, we frankly do not know absolutely that we will get the grant, we do think we have a Pod chance.