The City of Mount Vernon is moving forward with a grant proposal for façade improvements of a number of uptown businesses.
The grant is offered by the Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant,and the top award is for $650,000. Tom Gruis of East Central Iowa Council of Governments said that two meetings have been held for interested property owners for the project.
As part of the project, portions of the uptown First Street will have to be assessed for the level of slum or blight that exists to the building’s façade.
“Blight or slum designations are just used to indicate the level of help that could be needed to a façade improvement,” Gruis said. “Our goal is to have a façade improvement that’s just as great as Bauman’s building for other buildings in the uptown.”
Gruis said that Mount Vernon’s uptown does not have a high amount of blight, but there are some facades that could be part of this project that would benefit. He was hoping for between six to eight buildings to be in the grant.
“This project will not get funded without a local match,” Gruis said.
That means businesses will have to contribute to the project, as well as the city.
Gruis said that of the 27 businesses in the uptown, there are roughly 11 in fair condition that could benefit from the grant, and another four that are in good to fair condition.
The project would amount to $1.08 million dollars to be awarded, with $650,000 in grant funds. The cost for the city or ECICOG would be roughly $30,000 for an architect for the project, as well as $2,500 for grantwriting.
With eight buildings, that would amount to roughly $110,000 that would be available for façade work. Not all businesses are going to need that full cost for the project.
Council member Scott Rose asked if the project could be tackled while work goes on for streetscape. Gruis said that the entire project will probably take three years to complete, with one or two facades fixed each year.
Another question was about if the grant would be impacted by Mount Vernon’s uptown being a historic district. Gruis said it would add one more step to the project, but all work would meet the department of interior standards.
Building owners would have to contribute an amount to take part in the program.
Council members Mark Andresen, Scott Rose and Paul Tuerler all agreed it was worth moving forward to explore.
City administrator Chris Nosbisch said he would like the project to hold until the coming fiscal year on July 1 before any contribution from the city is explored