Christie Administration Announces Award of $6.5 Million Small Cities Grants

 

TRENTON, N.J. – The Christie Administration today announced the award of $6.5 million in Small Cities grants to municipalities and counties throughout New Jersey. The 20 grants will benefit 20 municipalities, 8 counties and upwards of 29,000 people across the state, including senior citizens and people with disabilities. The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) receives, distributes, and administers the federal grant funds for the State of New Jersey.

Awards in this year’s grant round will go towards funding projects ranging from improving handicapped access to public facilities and reconstructing streets to installing ADA compliant ramps at intersections and rehabilitating homes benefitting low- and moderate-income families.

“Small Cities grants encourage local governments to proactively address issues that benefit some of our most vulnerable citizens. They can also be leveraged with other funding sources to result in an even greater impact on towns and counties,” said DCA Commissioner Richard E. Constable, III. “These grants – and the projects they fund – do make a noticeable difference in the communities that receive them by improving their housing situations, their economic opportunities and their overall quality of life, which is a primary goal of DCA.”

The DCA’s Division of Housing and Community Resources administers the Small Cities grants, which are used for housing rehabilitation, development of public facilities, and improvements to public infrastructure. The grants are designated to benefit people of low- and moderate-income or to address recent local needs for which no other source of funding is available. Funding for the Small Cities Program is provided by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Community Development Block Grant Program.

As part of its role, the DCA develops a Small Cities grant plan for the year, notifies eligible local governments that applications are being accepted, reviews the applications received, and makes final decisions on grant awards. 

The local governments receiving Small Cities grants develop their own programs and funding priorities. The projected use of funds must be developed to give maximum feasible priority to activities which benefit low- and moderate-income persons or aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight. At least 70 percent of each grant must benefit low and moderate income populations.

Under unique circumstances, local governments can also use their funds to meet urgent community development needs for which no other resources are available. A need is considered urgent if it poses a serious and immediate threat to the health or welfare of the community and has arisen in the past 18 months.

A description of the grant recipients and projects are listed below. For more information on Small Cities grants, log on to http://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/dhcr/offices/cdbg.html.

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Grantee

County

Program Description

Award Amount

Egg Harbor City

Atlantic

To reconstruct portions of Buffalo and Cincinnati Avenues as primary access streets to the Spragg Elementary School and adjacent playground and recreation facilities.

     $400,000

Burlington City

Burlington

For flood control and flood improvements along the Assiscunk Creek which is located in a target neighborhood for Small Cities.

     $399,300

Pemberton Township

Burlington

To address the issue of non-ADA-compliant curb cuts/intersections throughout the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township.

     $400,000

Gloucester City

Camden

To rehabilitate ten (10) single-family, owner-occupied homes through the use of interest-free, deferred and forgivable loans benefiting low- and moderate-income homeowners in Gloucester City.

     $200,000

Cape May City

Cape May

To continue with Phase V of a  project to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Phase V activities will install ADA-compliant ramps at eight (8) intersections and ADA ramps and parking structures on Carpenters Lane in Cape May City.

     $400,000

Wildwood Crest Borough 

Cape May

To replace storm drainage facilities on portions of Crocus Road, Heather Road, Lavender Road and Lake Road in Wildwood Crest.

     $400,000

Lower Township

Cape May

To remove architectural barriers that hinder accessibility of handicapped persons at the Township Recreation Center and the Old Fishing Creek School House.

     $400,000

Lower Township

Cape May

To rehabilitate nine (9) single-family, owner-occupied homes through the use of interest-free, deferred and forgivable loans benefitting low- and moderate-income homeowners in Lower Township.

     $200,000

Wildwood City

Cape May

To reconstruct the street right-of-way and appropriate utilities on two (2) blocks of Youngs Avenue adjacent to the City’s Maxwell Field Recreation Complex

     $400,000

North Wildwood City

Cape May

To provide ADA regulation curb cuts and sidewalk improvements throughout the City of North Wildwood.

     $399,500

North Wildwood City

Cape May

To rehabilitate seventeen (17) single-family, owner-occupied homes through the use of interest-free, deferred and forgivable loans benefiting low- and moderate-income homeowners in North Wildwood, Wildwood and/or Wildwood Crest.

     $300,000

 

Middle Township

Cape May

To remove architectural barriers that hinder accessibility of handicapped persons at the Township Municipal Building and the Davies Sports Complex in Cape May Court House.

 

     $268,182

Middle Township           

Cape May

To rehabilitate twelve (12) single-family, owner-occupied homes through the use of interest-free, deferred and forgivable loans benefiting low- and moderate-income homeowners in Middle Township.

     $200,000

Upper Deerfield Township

Cumberland

To remove architectural barriers that hinder accessibility of handicapped persons at the Seabrook Recreation Complex in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

     $399,640

Maurice River Township

Cumberland

To rehabilitate twenty (20) single-family, owner-occupied homes through the use of interest-free, deferred and forgivable loans benefitting low- and moderate-income homeowners in Maurice River Township and Commercial Township.

     $300,000

Upper Deerfield Township

Cumberland

To rehabilitate fourteen (14) single-family, owner-occupied homes through the use of interest-free, deferred and forgivable loans benefitting low- and moderate-income homeowners in Upper Deerfield.

     $200,000

Hopewell Township

Cumberland

To install sidewalks on Shiloh Pike (Route 49) to improve the safety of pedestrians, especially the residents of the 92-unit Hopewell Place senior citizen housing complex on Old Stagecoach Road.

     $187,121

East Windsor Township

Mercer

To rehabilitate twelve (12) homes through the use of interest-free, deferred and forgivable loans benefiting low- and moderate-income homeowners throughout East Winsor Township.

     $200,000

Dover Town

Morris

To reconstruct seven (7) streets in town, including drainage, roadway, curbing, striping and related infrastructure improvements.

     $400,000

Warren County

Somerset

To rehabilitate twenty-two (22) homes through the use of interest-free, deferred and forgivable loans benefiting low- and moderate-income homeowners in designated municipalities throughout Warren County.

     $400,000