On Thursday, Sept. 30, the Greensboro City Council gave final approval on the city’s application process to give away some of the $59.4 million in American Rescue Plan money.
The application for nonprofits and for profits that want to apply for funding are supposed to be available on the City of Greensboro website on Friday, Oct. 1.
The deadline for applications is Friday, Nov. 5.
Assistant City Manager Larry Davis who is heading up the process said that his hope was that the city would not have 50 completed applications on Monday. He said that there was no advantage in getting the application in early and that the city was offering a lot of assistance to those applying to help make sure organizations submitted the best application possible.
Davis said that depending on the number of applications received city staff might not have time to contact applicants about portions of their applications that were unclear or incomplete, so it would be far better for applicants to take the time to make certain their application was complete before submitting it.
Davis said that the city staff had scheduled times when those interesting in applying could get questions answered about their application and the application process either in person or by Zoom. The City Council was provided a copy of the presentation with the schedule of those in person and virtual “office hours.” However, the presentation was not posted on the city website, but those who are interested may contact any member of the City Council and request the schedule.
Davis said, “We would like to say that the minimum application is $25,000.”
He explained that the audit and reporting requirements for this federal money were burdensome and an organization that received less than $25,000 might end up wondering if it was worth all the additional work.
The City Council doesn’t take votes at work sessions, but no one on the City Council objected to the $25,000 minimum.
Davis also said that the books had been closed on the 2020-2021 fiscal year and the city would like to allocate $6.3 million of the $59.4 million in ARP funds to make up for revenue losses mainly from the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts, the hotel/motel tax and parking revenue.
Davis said that the $6.3 million was not the full impact of COVID, but would stabilize those funds.
6.3 million for a Performance Arts Boondoggle that was sold to the public as being paid for by wonderful donors; parking revenue will pay the bills; and if more money is needed to fund a building 99 percent of residents will never be able to afford a ticket to the motel taxes will pay for it along with every show “guaranteed” to sell out.
In reality tickets sales ate flat, shows are few and far between, parking revenue is almost zero and motel taxes are dragging as well. Our leaders will “rescue ” their playground for the elite while our neighborhoods are overrun with murders and crime ; we have underfunded police ; and sky high food and hunger issues with children in our community.
Elections cannot get here soon enough.
Does anyone remember when the coliseum opened in the 60s parking was $.25 and the public was told that would only last until the lot was paid for guess it’s still not paid for. What suckers the public is.
CRIME CRIME CRIME =that’s what this next election should be about They are always gonna waste money on things we have no control over but when you can’t drive around town without worrying about getting shot I say clean house
All three of you are spot on with your comments. I was wondering why the money isn’t given to the schools for security issues to be fixed but ♀️. I don’t think anyone cares about them either.
Just wait until the end of the years when we, the citizens of Greensboro, are told that the Tanger Center did not make a profit and came up short of money to pay the cost of the building to keep the Center in business. WE, the tax payers will have to pay MILLIONS of DOLLARS to keep the Center in business. Every year that the Center does NOT make a profit WE the tax payers will have to KEEP paying MILLIUONS of DOLLARS to support the Center. SURPRISE SURPRISE SUPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!