By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph city officials face a deadline to plan how to use federal COVID relief funds but do have some plans in place where that money could go.
City manager Bryan Carter is hoping to pair demolition of dilapidated buildings with a housing initiative that will satisfy federal guidelines.
"So we know that we're short on housing in St. Joseph at various different levels, from top to bottom, and one of the pieces that we would like to do with the demolition fund is where possible focus on an area town, be it a block, a couple of blocks, that we can go in and really kind of change the dynamic of that area," Carter tells host of the KFEQ Hotline Barry Birr.
Carter says removing a number of dilapidated structures could make prime land for redevelopment but adds there's a lot that goes into it.
"You can't just knock down four houses and know that four more or two more will pop up in their place, the location has to be right, the utilities and infrastructure have to be right, you just have to have a lot that's right and that's in place," Carter explains.
Carter says the city has put a request for qualifications for a study to evaluate where housing would be most likely to be successful.
The deadline to obligate funds is the end of this year, with the deadline to spend that money coming in 2026.
Carter says there will be a lot of discussions between June and the end of the year about getting funds obligated.
"That's something we'll be looking at on the staff level on a weekly basis, at the council level probably on a monthly basis, and reevaluating how to move those funds around," Carter says. "Because ultimately what we want to do is make the best use of the most amount of funds that we have rather than lose the opportunity to do something just because we ran out of time."
Carter says if the city does not plan well, it could get to October or November and rush the process of spending the money, adding that when the objective becomes beating a deadline, it might not be spent in the most efficient way.
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