Belle Plaine city officials met for a second time with the Vision Iowa Community Attrraction and Tourism (CAT) Committee Wednesday morning in Iowa City in an effort to secure a grant for a portion of the city’s streetscape project.

City Administrator Bill Daily and Mayor Jim Daily were accompanied by Mike Bell from RDG Consultants for the meeting at the Hotel Vetro in downtown Iowa City. Belle Plaine’s grant request, for $545,000 was one of 15 grant applications scheduled for review by the committee this month.

While the local group didn’t receive any assurance that the project would receive funding, Bill Daily said he senses that the city could receive some funds, if not the full amount requested.

He said that the CAT committee does not generally like to fund streetscape projects. In fact, of the 15 groups slated to be heard at this week’s meeting, the Belle Plaine project was the lone streetscape project on the agenda. Other applications were for trail improvement, community centers, libraries, community theaters, camps and aquatics centers. But it has a past history of similar funding, most recently giving the city of Marengo a grant for a portion of its streetscape project.

The CAT funding is not essential to the completion of the streetscape project, but local officials have said that it would be used for art work and signage in the downtown area, the kind of “cultural amenities” that could draw more visitors to the area.

The CAT committee asked questions for about six or seven minutes, he said. There were no “surprise questions” from committee members. They are looking for local commitments for projects they might fund. The Belle Plaine group submitted a letter of support in the form of a $6,000 grant from the Benton County Foundation for the project. And the Belle Plaine City Council has already allocated the lion’s share of the cost of the project.

The next step will be for the Vision Iowa staff to further study the Belle Plaine proposal and score it in regard to other requests from around the state. The committee indicated it would be in contact with Belle Plaine officials in the coming days. The CAT committee will next meet in July and may further consider the request at that time.

CDBG grant
In other grant news, Bill Daily said that city officials are attempting to determine what the next step will be in providing information to officials who would award a Community Development Block Grant for the streetscape project. While local officials have been informed that they are in serious contention for an award, one of 10 in the state currently, they must show either that the income level of the residents does not exceed a certain level or that the area for improvement can be considered a blighted area.

In order to show that at least 25 percent of the area can be considered a “blighted” area, a study must be done to document it, either with the help of an outside consultant, or in-house.