10/7/25 Commissioners Meeting [5:00-10:03]

All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. And Dave did review it for me, so. It's to be. Okay. I didn't say that. True. So I just need a signature. Okay. I'll do yours. All right. Thank you. And. Next is Jenny Derwester from SID South. SIDC Housing Rehab Project. Good morning. Good morning to you. I wanted to speak to the commissioners about seeing if you are interested in doing another housing rehabilitation grant. It's been a few years since we've done one. I know Rodney helped a lot with the last one that we did. SIDC received a housing preservation grant from USDA rule development last year for the purpose of owner occupied rehab in Lawrence County. We received a grant for $107,875 of which $88,459 is set aside for rehabilitation activities. So that amount can be used as matching funds for an Indiana Office of Community Rule Affairs grant. The ochre grant is a little bit different from what we had done before with Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. In the past, we were able to do a multitude of things on the homes, windows ripping, siding, heating, air conditioning, and so forth. Lead-based paint was a big issue at that time too and any lead-based paint hazards had to be addressed. When Indiana Housing quit doing the OOR program and ochre took over it, we are now focusing on six items, which is the roof. And it does not include soffit, fascia, or gathering, so just strictly the roof. Heating and air conditioning, electrical system upgrades, water heater, and a ramp into the home, and then also now, radon mitigation. So those are the six items that could be addressed in an OOR program. Ochre is coming out with their final round for the year on October 14th and the applications are due on November 14th is a quick turnaround period. The county is eligible to apply for up to $500,000. Cities and towns can receive $350,000, counties can receive $500,000. And with the SIDC HPG grant, you have more than enough to cover the required match for that if you would like to. In the past, we used the grant funds for the rural areas of the county. Cities and towns can apply for this grant themselves. I'm currently working in Mitchell on one. It will in June of 2026. And Bedford has one as well, and I believe it may be the same time period also. So it's basically up to the county if you decide you want to do this program. If you want to just do it for the rural areas, or if you want to do it for the entire county as a whole. With that $500,000 grant, you could do 21 houses. And between the grant and the grant that SIDC received, you can put $25,108 into a house. When we did our last funding cycle with Ochre, we had the communities put in a little bit of money. Just to show kind of like a good faith effort, and $50 a house. At 21 houses, that would be $1,000 and $1,050 if the county would be able to do that. And then that would provide 21,158 per house in rehabilitation for those six items. The only thing, if you decide to do it, and you put in the $1,050, the only other thing that we'd have to pay, there is a legal notice for the public hearing that is before the application. There would be a legal notice to procure the services of a grant administrator if you're awarded the grant. And then legal notice for like the release of funds if you're awarded to. So it's basically legal notices to a certain point. Once you have a grant administrator on hand, then they can procure the services of the inspector and radon tester. So you still have an inspector that would be procured, that inspector would go out and inspect the homes after they're identified and look at those.