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City may be receiving federal money in form of block grant program
By John Higgins Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Aug 11, 2007
The organization that plants flowers, picks up litter and paints over graffiti in Akron has a new charge: prepare the ground for a potential influx of new federal money dedicated to reducing energy dependence.
Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic announced Friday that Keep Akron Beautiful will take the lead next year in identifying environmental priorities for the city.
''We will now assemble the local experts for a public dialogue to identify environmental priorities and develop creative strategies to make sustainable change,'' said the nonprofit group's executive director, Paula Davis.
Plusquellic said the timing is right for the discussion because federal money may be coming to Akron soon in the form of a proposed block grant program for cities.
The Energy Efficiency Block Grant Program is part of broad energy legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week and now being considered in a House-Senate conference committee.
The proposed block grant program is modeled after the federal Community Development Block Grant program, which had a budget of about $3.7 billion in 2007. Under a complicated formula, Akron got almost $7 million of that.
The Energy Efficiency Block Grant Program is proposed at $2 billion a year from 2008-12 for ''community-based energy efficiency and conservation efforts,'' according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Plusquellic, a past president of the conference, joined a delegation that delivered a 10-point agenda for cities to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in January.
''This was the No. 1 goal,'' Plusquellic said. ''To have the federal government expand their budget in energy to look at how local governments can fit the role of making changes to improve the environment that they've talked about at the federal level but haven't been able to fully implement.''
If the energy block grant is distributed using a formula similar to the Community Development Block Grant, it could mean $3 million to $4 million more in Akron's coffers.
That's money that could be applied to eliminating sewers that overflow after heavy rains and pollute the Cuyahoga and Little Cuyahoga rivers and the Ohio & Erie Canal. The current estimated cost for solving that problem is $425 million, and the city is continuing to negotiate with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over a timeline for making the improvements.
Plusquellic has other ideas for the money, too. He would like to continue replacing high-maintenance grass along expressways with low-maintenance landscaping, to use empty space created by highway interchanges for wetlands that could filter polluted water runoff and to explore more environmentally friendly ideas for downtown buildings, including roof-top plantings.
Plusquellic said that regardless of whether the new federal grant money materializes, he also is seeking more money for Keep Akron Beautiful to support its new mission.
He said he hasn't determined the amount or where the money would come from.
The city already gives the organization about $200,000 a year, raised from city street-cleaning assessments.
John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792, 800-777-7232 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com.
The organization that plants flowers, picks up litter and paints over graffiti in Akron has a new charge: prepare the ground for a potential influx of new federal money dedicated to reducing energy dependence.
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