Allen County commissioners agreed Tuesday morning to support a grant application for a new Humboldt community center with $50,000.
County participation would be a combination of cash and in-kind contributions, such as materials, equipment and labor, in a ratio to be decided later.
Humboldt Administrator Larry Tucker approached commissioners last week about helping with the application. At that time the city’s intention was to seek $240,000. After commissioners toured the Humboldt Senior Center, situated in adjoining older downtown buildings, they proposed increasing the size of the center and asking for $350,000 to give the center ample room for seniors and community activities.
Tucker said Humboldt decided to up the ante to “an amount not to exceed $400,000.” To have a chance for Community Development Block Grant success, at least 15 percent of the requested total must be a local match, he said. In addition to the county’s assistance, Humboldt will commit $10,000.
Deadline for the grant application is Tuesday. If it fails, the next application period is in October, but local match requirements increase to 50 percent. Failure this month likely would shelve the project for the immediate future.
Commissioner Dick Works, from Humboldt, stressed that whatever cash the county provided would come from the county’s senior services fund.
“It wouldn’t require a property tax increase,” he said.
THE COMMUNITY center would be built along the north edge of Humboldt, just south of the town’s golf course and in an area being considered by a private developer for 12 to 16 units of senior housing.
Tucker explained that the location, near private housing and Arrowood Lane Assisted Care Facility, would provide a financial plum for the city. The developer has promised to deed land where the housing will be built to the city and then purchase it back to provide money for Humboldt’s match for the community center grant.
The private development hinges on acquisition of tax-credit funding, which will be decided at the state level later this year.
If the senior housing isn’t built, the center’s location might better be nearer the town’s center. While a provision of the grant application makes proceeds site specific, Tucker said he was confident that if it were better to build the center elsewhere, the city likely could reach agreement with state officials to do so.
The timeline for completing construction of both the housing and community center would be the second half of 2011.
TUCKER ALSO told commissioners that Humboldt is considering an extension of zoning into nearby rural areas, provided the county agrees, for “two reasons:” To plan for orderly growth to the east and north of town — logical areas for residential expansion, and to impose Humboldt’s building codes to keep structures compatible with what’s in the city.
City Counselor Alan Weber said agricultural land in tracts of three acres or more would not be affected by the zoning regulations, and that before a decision could be made, the issue must be reviewed by the county’s Planning Board.
