Playground trees, affordable children’s athletic programs and power doors for disabled people were among the items discussed during a public hearing on federal grants Tuesday.
Representatives from three Evanston organizations spoke about community needs for the 2009-2010 Community Development Block Grant program at the Housing and Community Development Act Committee meeting.
The community also had an opportunity to comment on the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report. The report reviews how the city used federal funding provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement programs and projects that address community needs between March 2007 and March 2008.
Evanston received $2,625,391 in Housing and Urban Development funds during that period. Most of the money was from the grant, which is intended to help residents of low- and moderate-income areas. Evanston’s CDBG target areas are concentrated in the western and southern parts of city, mainly in the Second, Fifth and Eighth Wards.
Although the funds should be mainly directed at people whose income is between 30 percent and 80 percent of the area’s median income, they can support a variety of social services and capital improvements, Evanston CDBG Administrator Sarah Flax said.
“It’s a very flexible funding stream, unlike many other federal funding programs,” she said.
The grant doesn’t usually fund the entire cost of the project, Flax said. Rather, the committee usually gives the project a portion of the cost, hoping the organization will be able to find additional support from other sources.
But the focus of Tuesday’s meeting quickly turned to how the money would be spent next year.
During the hearing on community needs for the 2009-2010 grant program, Washington Elementary School parent Jenni Suvari explained the need for trees in the school’s playground. Suvari, the Parent Teacher Association landscape chairwoman, plans to apply for grant funding so the school can plant trees to form a “canopy” over the play area, which will cost about $18,000.
“Our entire playground area is entirely devoid of trees so our children are out there getting scorched by the sun, especially during the summer,” said Suvari, Weinberg ’93. “It’s unbearable.”
The school has worked with a landscape architect to develop a master plan, including trees, for the play area and raised $20,000 at a silent auction last week to implement the plan. On Saturday, volunteers worked on a variety of playground projects, including planting shrubs and perennials. She also pointed out that the school’s playground receives especially high use because it is next to the Robert Crown Community Center, and that more than half of the students at Washington come from low-income households.
“Our playground at Washington borders Robert Crown, and because of that synergy between two public spaces, the community heavily uses the playground,” Suvari said. “We don’t see this as a school project … but for the Evanston community.”
Although the grant program is primarily intended to serve low- and moderate-income areas, the money can also be used to resolve access problems for people with disabilities, Flax said. McGaw YMCA Director of Building Services and Residence John Mroczka spoke during the hearing about the need for automatic or power doors at the facility. The doors would likely cost between $20,000 and $25,000, he said. In addition, he would like to install heating units above the doors to help combat the cold winds that would likely enter the building during the winter.
The final citizen speaker, Margarita Matlis from the Organizacion de Latinos en Evanston, detailed more general needs for her organization. In particular, she stressed the need for affordable activities, such as low-cost soccer teams.
She also sought to improve educational opportunities for young Latinos.
“We want to make a connection between Hispanics and Northwestern University, Hispanics and higher education,” Matlis said. “There’s so much to be done in terms of education.”
