Belle Plaine’s bid to receive a Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grant for its downtown revitalization project suffered a setback Wednesday, when the CAT board refused to refer the project for negotiations.
Meeting at the century old renovated Saints Center for Culture and the Arts in Stuart, the board reviewed eight applications for funding from across the state and referred two projects to the negotiations stage, the next step to grant approval.
City Administrator Bill Daily led a local contingent of Belle Plaine representatives at the meeting which also included Mayor Jim Daily, Councilman Marv DeRycke, Belle Plaine Community Development Executive Director Jeanne Duffy, community member Geraldine Norgaard and Jeff Orvis, editor of Belle Plaine Now.com.
This was the second time Belle Plaine representatives have appeared before the board requesting funding and the second time the city has submitted a grant for the project. The city had requested $513,000 toward the just over $2 million project. The CAT grant would be used for artistic enhancements for the project, which is also to include complete renovation of downtown streets and sidewalks and considerable renovation of the facades of many downtown buildings.
“It’s the piece of the puzzle that would bring people to town,” he said later.
Bill Daily briefly reminded the board what the city was hoping to do with a CAT grant, which would include public art, signs, etc.
Tammy Robinson, chair of the CAT committee, said she has struggled with the Belle Plaine project. She once again suggested that the city should demand more financial participation in the project from Main Street businesses. Daily replied that the businesses would incur considerable expense in upgrading their storefronts, as well as connecting on to new water lines that will be installed. Some businesses with canopies over the fronts of their storefronts will have the expense of shoring up their fronts after the canopies are removed. He added that demanding more financial participation was not realistic in the current economy.
Only 13 cities in the state currently have downtown tax assessments and none of them have populations similar to Belle Plaine, Daily said.
He also said the store owners have already responded favorably to the project. The community has shown its support for other projects in recent past, he said, pointing to the $600,000 raised toward the construction of the new aquatics center.
No other member of the board spoke during the Belle Plaine presentation. Robinson advised local leaders to continue working on the project and report back. In the meantime, the Belle Plaine project will be scored by CAT staff and then it will be determined if the proposal is still in the running for funding. Daily later said that the streetscape project is still on hold pending a final decision from the CAT board. But he added that it is hoped the project can get underway yet this year.
Seven other applications were reviewed during Wednesday’s meeting. Two of them, Buffalo Center’s request for just over $111,000 for a Heritage Town Center and Orange City’s request for just over $1 million for an events center were referred for negotiations. Historically, the board has granted up to 25 percent of a total project cost. In the negotiations stage, community representatives meet with CAT staff to determine a final grant figure that is then referred to the Vision Iowa Board for final approval.
Other projects reviewed included a Memorial Hall and Trail Head Welcome Center in Elma, recreation fields in West Union, downtown revitalization project in West Union, a downtown project in Kalona and the Hubbard Public Library.
The Belle Plaine project already has substantial funding from a variety of sources, including $2 million from the city, a Brownfield grant of $250,000, the first Community Development Block Grant for downtown revitalization in the amount of $500,000 and a $100,000 storm water management grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, using I-Jobs funds.