Council OKs plan for spending $1.3 million in grants

By Jeremy Twitchell

Thursday, April 23, 2009 | 6:11 p.m.

A citizen-developed plan to distribute about $1.3 million in federal, low-income assistance grants won unanimous approval on Tuesday from the Henderson City Council.

Each year, the city receives the money in the form of Community Development Block Grants, which it must use for infrastructure development, housing and assistance programs that benefit low-income areas and families.

A Council-appointed citizen committee has the annual task of determining which projects and programs will receive the money. While the requests the committee receives outweigh the funds it has available as a general rule, the gap was all the more stark in the midst of recession.

For the $1.3 million the committee had to distribute, it received $3.9 million in requests.

“The monies available to us for these kinds of programs are drying up,” Mayor James B. Gibson said. “It’s all we can do to fund just a few programs.”

Among the programs funded are HopeLink’s (formerly HACA) homeless prevention program, Giving Life Ministries’ food pantry, the SAFE House domestic violence shelter and the Blind Center of Nevada.

Opportunity Village also received $100,000 for the expansion of its Henderson campus, while an infrastructure improvement project in the Triangle Neighborhood — the area north of Lake Mead Parkway between Water Street and Boulder Highway — received $250,000.

While Gibson and the City Council praised the committee for its work, not everyone was pleased with its decision.

Resident Frank Mahoney, founder of the Nevada Center for Missing Loved Ones, criticized the plan because no programs or projects focused on senior citizens received funding, despite the fact that seniors make up about 22 percent of Henderson’s population, he said.

“None of this money is representative of senior programs that we put in for,” Mahoney said. “The same people that got the money last year got put in front this year.”

Gibson defended the committee’s decision, pointing out that the city has a strong commitment to meeting the needs of Henderson’s seniors using other funding sources.

“The city has a long and established record of responding to the needs of seniors,” he said, noting that the city is building a new senior center at Heritage Park. The facility is expected to be completed this summer. The city also has a low-cost nutrition program and other services available to seniors through the existing center on Texas Avenue.

Gibson said the disbursement of the block grant funds as recommended by the committee would allow the money to have the greatest possible impact in the community.

“We really have tried to respond, but I’ll be the first to admit that there isn’t enough money to fund all of the things that we want to fund,” he said. “However, these programs and projects that were funded have proven that they are responsible recipients of the dollars we have given them.”