Bill Geiger acting as the Executive Director of Brooksville’s Community Redevelopment Agency explained that in June of 2009, a commercial exterior grant program was approved to primarily enhance aesthetics of the redevelopment area.
“It has been a successful program. We’ve had over 20 property owners take advantage of it to date,” said Geiger.
Merritt Funeral home has applied to receive the grant, to help offset construction costs of a 5-bay 25′ x 100′ garage. However, they did not apply pre-construction. Merritt Funeral home received a building permit in October of 2015 for construction of the garage with a value of $72,238.00. In a letter to the city, the Merritts indicate that the cost thus far has exceeded $92,000.
Geiger explained that one of the rules is that the application has to be approved before they do the work. If not, then that makes it an ineligible expenditure.
Although the city indicated that information was given to their contractor, the Merritts explained they did not receive an application until they completed the construction. Additionally they stated that it was never made clear to their contractor John Cavalier that they must apply pre-construction.
The Merritts stated in a letter to the city that they spent over $500,000 to remodel the existing funeral home building back in 2008.
“What are we doing as a city to let people know that we have this program?” asked Council Member Betty Earhardt.
Geiger responded that there are open houses and they provide information to property owners when filing for permits as in this case. He said that they give out a lot of applications and possibly people don’t want to go through the extra work of getting three bids and meeting additional requirements of the application process. He said that they have tried to streamline it and make it as effective as possible in order to give money back to the community. He remarked that this is the first instance they’ve had this particular issue.
In the preconstruction review process, they look to make sure the project is consistent to architectural guidelines. Geiger stated that Merritt did a good job with the renovations keeping with the architectural continuity and was confident that the project would have been approved pre-construction. As indicated by the Merritts they $17,000 to $20,000 in funds on keeping with the look and integrity of the building.
The city council acting as the community redevelopment agency approved the grant application 4-0.
They also directed staff to look at establishing an affadavit for property owners to sign that states they are aware of the program and its requirements when they apply for their building permit.
According to the grant program document,
“Approved projects are eligible to receive a one to one dollar match with a total maximum grant of $5000 awarded to any one commercial property… Should an applicant provide a two to one or three to one dollar match, the applicant may elect to receive more in grant funds, if approved. In no case may a property be eligible to exceed the $10,000 in grant funding within a five year period…”
The Merritt Funeral Home grant application, being accepted and approved by the CRA, the Merritts are eligible for the full grant amount of $10,000.