Neighborhood Beautification Program (NBP) Second Round Information Session
2:01PM Jan 25, +0000
Speakers:
Unknown
Keywords:
project
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application
grant
sam
neighborhood
questions
funding
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carmel
land
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include
lots
section
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club
select
Good morning Peter Howery. Peter, good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
Good morning all. Welcome to the information session. We're gonna give it another five minutes to let people continue to join the meeting. So take your time. Get your morning coffee. We'll get started soon.
A Jordan Morning
Morning Carmel. Hey, Sam.
Good morning everyone. We're just given a few more minutes to let everyone get together. I hope everyone's staying warm today. The snow hasn't. hasn't been too bad yet this morning but we're keeping an eye out for the rest of the day. hopefully everyone's safe and dry.
Again, feel free to use the chat during this meeting to ask questions. We do have everyone's microphones muted for the time being while we present, but you can use the chat for questions and also to introduce yourself. Feel free to give us your your name, your organization and your district if you know it'd be helpful for us to know who's here at the meeting. We'll get we'll get started in just a couple more minutes once we get few more people.
Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Tamer morning Sandra.
I don't know
if Kerry's gonna be on. I think he had a conflict this morning, Sam.
Okay. You were just given a couple more minutes for some attendees to continue to come in. And then then we'll jump in Tamra, do you mind looking for questions? In the chat while Carla and I present?
So you think we'll probably get started in about two minutes,
I think is good. Yeah, we're still we're still getting to come in. But
okay. It didn't show up. Okay.
We'll just give it a couple more minutes. Again, feel free to use a chat. Yes, we will be recording this meeting as well as sharing the presentation that you'll be seeing. So we'll make sure that that's available. On on our website for anyone to access if they'd like.
I'm going to jump over to the presentation. Can you help let people in as a as they come in?
Yeah. Awesome.
All right. You can see the presentation. Okay. Awesome. Okay. Well, we'll go ahead and get started. People continue to come in I'm sure as the morning goes on, but again, welcome. My name is Sam coons. I work in the housing and revitalization department on the neighborhood beautification program. This is an information session for the grants associated with that program. We're going to talk all about this opportunity, hopefully answer all your questions, but if you do have questions, we have a great team here to help and we will be looking at questions in the in the chat as we go. But we'll also have moments, especially at the end of the presentation where we can answer the questions directly for everyone to hear. So I'm going to quickly just go over the agenda. Again. We'll make some quick introductions of our team. We'll talk about the program as an overview in case you haven't heard much about it. We'll walk through the application itself. The application is not yet open. It will open on February 8. So two weeks from today. It's when the application will open but we're going to give you a sneak peek so you know what to expect when the application goes live. We'll take some time to talk about plot plans, which are an important part of this application. And we'll talk about the timelines so you know what to expect the resources available to you from our team and some of our partners here on this call, who can make this application process as smooth as possible for you, and then we'll do a q&a. So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce my boss, Tamar Hardy, who's the director of the Neighborhood Services team. She's going to kick us off with an overview as well as some introductions. Good morning, everybody.
I hope everyone is doing well on this snowy day, who would have thunk right? But it is January and we do have a several months to go before we get to the spring. So with that I'd like to introduce you to myself. I'm Tamra Fontaine Hardy. I'm the director of the neighborhood services division within the housing and revitalization department at the city of Detroit. That's a mouthful. And I'd like to introduce you to my team as you will see our beautiful faces on the screen Carrie Batum chair family who has been speaking to you and then Carmo Reese, we are all working collectively to lead this program. You'll see camo and sounds face more often than mine carries but just know that we are here to assist you as best we can. You can go to the next slide, Sam. So you know for those of you who don't know, and I believe many of you do, because we've been making our rounds through the district meetings and I did a presentation during the downcast but for those of you who don't know the Neighborhood Improvement Fund our NIF and beautification program really isn't exactly what it says. These are. This is the program where we will give you funds, any nonprofit, any community organization, any block club who has a 501 C three LLC or whatever, will give you funds to beautify your neighborhood. That's what it is your ability take a vacant land in your community, request funding for it and then you can get that funding to beautify it and you can do it with community gardens. You maybe you want to plant a garden in your community and invite people from your community to come in and take advantage of the tomatoes or the cucumbers or whatever. You can do that maybe you want to put in a flower garden, a butterfly garden. Maybe you want to improve some public spaces and maybe you see that the trees are overgrown and people have been dumping trash, whatever it might be. You can do that. With this fun you can apply for funding through Wang Metro. And you'll hear more about that as we go into this training and students workshop up from anywhere between 500 to $15,000. Sam, you can go to the next slide.
So we've
done this already. This is our second year and I am proud to say that in 2022, we had 34 organizations that came and applied and we were able to get $481,500 into your community. You asked for it. We did it. We have given you the opportunity to help beautify your own spaces and these are the groups that have done it now you'll see that some groups receive more funding than others. And that's because of the number of groups that apply and their projects were ready to go and we were able to assist them to get them there. Sam and Kamala today are going to help walk you through that process. And on the back end, me and Carrie, we will be responding to any questions in the chat. Again, I'm excited that you're here. I'm excited that you want to learn about this program and get more dollars into your community. And with that, I believe I'm turning it over to Carmel. Thank you remember to get your questions in the chat.
And, and I'll take I'll take the first swing at this presentation and then we'll we'll move over to Carmel to help walk through the application. So first thing we're going to talk about are some eligibility requirements. These are important because these are the rules that we certainly cannot change. So this is this is really what the grant is meant to serve and who were able to help. So to apply for the grant you must be a city registered block club or neighborhood association. So you have to be registered with the Department of neighborhoods. We do allow nonprofit organizations and faith based organizations that may not be block clubs or neighborhood associations to apply, but it must be in partnership with a neighborhood association or block club. We have a really handy template letter where all you'll have to do is connect with your block club that you know in the neighborhood where you plan on doing work, talk over the project with them. Have everyone sign off on the letter showing that that everyone's good to go with the project and then you're free to apply. You must provide proof of ownership of the parcels to be improved. They must be in the name of the organization that's applying that's important. Deeds cannot be in the names of individuals. So if you have a sidewalk next to your house, and it's in your name, unfortunately that is not eligible. This is a program very much to improve. community owned parcels that are open for public space and public activities. And parcels must be zoned are one or two or three to be eligible for funding. We can help you if you don't know the zoning of your parcel. But in general, this is meant for residential areas. This is for neighborhoods. You can't necessarily improve vacant land on a commercial corridor with this grant. But when in doubt, just reach out to us we'll provide our contact information later. And that's going to be the easiest way for us to find out the answer specifically for the plot of land that you're interested in improving. So what can you do? Again, like Tamra said we have these three categories and you're allowed to mix and match in the categories we have that all the time and in fact, often it'll be required. Maybe you have a lot that's overgrown, and you need to clear it out before you can make a community garden there. That's totally fine that these are some of the items or the elements that you can mix together for your project. You can do garden beds, whether that's for flowers, vegetables, crops, as long as it's under one acre. You can plant fruit trees, it must be less than 10 fruit trees or else it gets categorized as an orchard and we enter a different type of a project or you can just plant an ornamental garden, something beautiful for the community to enjoy a place where people can just be out in nature. That's very much the point of this grant that we're trying to encourage. So public space improvements. Maybe you don't have specifically a community garden, but you'd like to landscape a vacant lot you'd like to plant trees or flowers. Just clean it up and tidy it up. You can add benches and tables. You can add art installations like murals or public art. We can help connect you with people who can connect you with artists. So if you don't have an artist in your neighborhood that you know, I can guarantee you there's artists all over the city. We can help you connect with people who may be able to do some of those murals as part of this project. And fencing boulders ways to to frame your space and keep it safe and keep people from parking there. Those are the types of things that we can fund. Again, you can clear out lots you can regrade lots and put down new grass seed. You can just clean up whether that's graffiti or litter. And then we also allow costs including insurance contractor fees, so bringing in a contractor to do that heavy work, hiring a designer if you'd like someone to design your garden and various project related to administrative costs, as long as they're less than 10% of your total grant. That's all allowed with this funding. What you can't do with this funding and this is important. These items can be part of your project. We're not saying that you're that you can't do these things on your land. We're saying that we cannot pay for it with the grant that includes sheds, shipping containers, hoop houses, pavilions, gazebos, house rehabs or house demolitions, any sort of structures or construction. That's not the purpose of this grant. And that's not something we can support rainwater systems irrigation systems, water features. Again, those are outside the scope of this grant. Certainly, we want you to be able to use and program your space to hold events in your space, to have potlucks in your space when you're done. But this grant cannot support you purchasing food for those events or any of these other sort of program related costs. And while we do allow and encourage alley cleanouts so you're welcome to clean the alley adjacent to your project. We can't activate that alley. You can't necessarily shut it down and say this is going to be part of our public space. Now. That's not something we can support with this grant. In addition, again, programming but also stipends or payroll, land acquisition costs and reimbursements, these aren't things that we can support. Again, we do encourage you to let us know if they're going to be part of your project. Just be really clear what you're asking for funding for versus what you're also including, that may be funded with a different source. This is important because we'll talk about plot plans in a bit. But it's very important for us to know the whole picture of what you plan on doing on your land. So we have some examples from the first round. These are great grantees that we're working with right now to implement their projects this spring. Many of them have already gotten great starts over the winter. And this is just meant to give you some ideas again, you can see how like we're going to be mixing some of those categories together, just to make sure that these projects fit their blocks. So rescued Michigan nature now is building an urban acupuncture Park. They're calling it with a bio diverse landscaping designs and it's meant to improve your mood and your mental health and create a space for the community to gather and relax. So they use beautification funds to buy perennials to buy seating, solar lamps, art displays and equipment to get the job done. The Curtis Jones Park by Northwest Goldberg cares and Northwest Goldberg just off of the Boulevard is an excellent project and this is a larger project that they've been working on for quite a while. It's a community park. It's an active lifestyle Park. It's named after a local basketball legend Curtis Jones but they wanted to apply for beautification funds for murals that they wanted to paint on their basketball court and on their tool shed. So again, we needed to know about the basketball court we needed to know about the tool shed even though it wasn't something we were funding because once we knew about that we were able to provide the funding for this great mural by disco Smith. And I've just learned recently that they're even using the space as an ice skating rink in the winter. So all sorts of creative ideas that are happening in the neighborhoods right now in these spaces. And then finally, I wanted to talk about Yosemite place which is by Norton Park improvement rock out in Arden Park. This is a great project we really we really loved seeing this application because it was an existing flower garden, a tulip garden that they just wanted to take up to the next level. So they used beautification funds for tree removal to add some seating to carve a walking path through the tulips and to buy and plant more bulbs. They collaborate with local churches and block clubs to plant the garden and host different events there. But again, you know, you can you can apply for these funds for something as large as a public park that your neighborhood is building or for something like planting tulips on a vacant lot just to beautify the neighborhood. We do, you know, look for applications from all sorts of sizes and scales.
The lot licensing program is an exciting opportunity that we're working on with the land bank, we have some some of our partners with the land bank on this call, so feel free. If you have questions about licensing, you can put them in the chat and we'll be able to answer those questions together. But the lot licensing program is an opportunity if you don't own land in your neighborhood. If your block club knows that there's a set of vacant lots down the street, but you don't own them. You know that the land bank owns them. We have an opportunity where you may not be able to make a community garden there, but we can help fund a cleanup of those lots. So what you would do is you'd go on the dlba website. You'll look for neighborhood lots in your neighborhood. It's a special type of lot different from a sidewalk that says that, you know, it's generally these parcels of lots together and what you can do as a neighborhood organization is apply for cleanup funding for those lots. We'll talk a little bit later about exactly how you could apply for that. But it's just good to know if you don't own land in your neighborhood. There's still an opportunity for you to take part in this program. So with that, I'm going to take a break I'm going to toss it over to Carmel and stop screen sharing for just a second so that she can share her screen and walk you through some of or to walk you through the application to get a sense
Hi, everyone.
My name is Carmen Reese. I am also with the housing and revitalization departments and Neighborhood Services Division. I work with the neighborhood beautification program, and I will be walking through the application for the neighborhood beautification grant application. So this application like Sam said, we'll be opening up on February 8, this is just a sneak peek. And I'll be going through this application as a hypothetical city register block club that wants to do a community garden. So we'll just get started. So Section One of the application goes over your organization information. And so as as your organization been awarded grant funding through any other way Metro programs, I'm going to select No because this is my first time as a block club applying for this program. So I'm going to say I am the Piedmont St. Black club. Black club. So you will put your legal name of your applicant organization here. I'm located in district one Piedmont Street and grandma Rosedale and then you go in and you would fill out your street address, your city, your zip code, the organization's phone number, um, your head of organization name, so of course, you know, I'm in Detroit. I'll put my zip code is 48223 I'm the head of the organization I leave my block club. If your block club or your your organization is you know, in someone else's, you're not the head of the organization that you make sure you put the head of organization's name there. Make sure you include their email on this particular section. You'll know that the red Asterix marks the required the required parts that need to be filled in. So the city console district your street address, your zip code, the city, the organization phone number, the head of organizations name and email. Also the contact person for the proposal. So make sure if the contact person for the proposal differentiates from the actual organization lead then make sure that contact persons information is included in this as well. Did you include their email their number and then if you have a link to your organization's website, please include that as well in this section, and then if you have the organization's annual operating budget, you will make sure to include that as well. Underneath all of this part, all of your your organization information at the top, they'll ask a question which best describes the applicant organization? So are you a city register block Club, which is going to be the first option or neighborhood association? Or if you're not a neighborhood association or city block club? Are you a faith based organization or nonprofit that's working in Parque documented and as important document in partnership with a city register block club or neighborhood association? Or do you need to do these describe your organization? I'm Sam. Sam kind of went over in the overview that it is a requirement that you either be a city register block club or neighborhood association, or if you're a faith based or nonprofit that you'd be undocumented partnership with one. So if you select neither of these describe my organization, you won't be eligible for this walkthrough. I'm the Piedmont street block clubs. I'll be clicking on I am a city register block club. So when you click on the option for city register, block club or neighborhood association, they're going to ask for your organizational boundaries. This is where you're going to answer. In this example format you see for example, you have North West Grand Boulevard, you have East i 75. You have South i 94. Or you have a you know, West Woodward. I'm going to put in I don't know I'll put in Northwest Grand Boulevard. We know that that's not where Piedmont is, but that's not what to put
so this is where you put in your boundary. And then of course underneath this, they'll ask for your 501 C three status. Um, Sam kind of went over in the overview that the parcels have to be the D for the parcels have to be in the name of your 501 C three or LLC. I'm going to say that I am a 501 C three for this example. Yes. And so when you select 501 C three is going to take you down and ask you to please enter your employer or tax identification number. You will need to upload your 501 C three tax exempt letter and this attachment section here and so I don't have one but if you have one this is where you will be uploading your your attachment for your 501 C three tax exempt letter. So make sure you know you would do that. You actually entering your identification number here and then underneath it'll ask you still in section one, your project type and site control. So to be eligible for funding, the applicant organization has to either own the lot on which the project is being proposed or take place or you can receive the notice from the dlba that the lots are available to be leased and that goes into the light the licensing program. That Sam was kind of talking about. The projects conducted on the lots have to be owned by have to be owned by your 501 C three or LLC. The individual own D I mean on lots are not eligible for funding so that just reiterates what Sam kind of already talked about. If you own your lats, that's awesome. You just can't use those. This grant because they have to be in the name of your 501 C three or your LLC. So for this hypothetical project, I'm gonna say that I'm beautifying or attempting to beautify three lots of note that in this drop down menu, you have there are up to four lots that you can select. For this grant, you can beautify up to four lots maximum per grant cycle. So I'm going to select three but if you are organization, block club or faith based organization, a nonprofit that does want to select a project for four lots, you do have that option, but I'm just gonna go ahead and select three for this. And then they'll ask Please choose one of the following options. And I'm going to say I currently own my lot, but you do have four options here. You will eat at least the lots from the dlba. That's a lot licensing program that Sam talked about. You can own a lot in with the deeds in the name of your 501 C three or LLC. You could have submitted a creative creative project application through the DBA or you can plan to submit a creative project application to bylaws. For this example, I'm going to just choose that we own the lot. So when you select that you own the lots The next question will prompt and ask Does your organization own all of the laws on which the proposed project will take place? Please note it they if you own the land you are required to attach a valid deed in the name of the applicant organization in the document upload section. If you fail to include the d this will result in your organization being declined for funding. So when you get to this section, if you do on all of the laws on which the the proposed project will take place, make sure that you attach a valid deed and make sure that deed is once again in the name of your organization. 501 c three or LLC.
I'm going to click Yes.
So once you click Yes, it'll ask are the deeds in the name of the LLC or 501 C three, I'm going to say yes, I selected 511 C three for this example. So I'm going to say they're in that name. And what is the permanent use of my lots. So this is when you'll select you know, do you want to do urban garden? Are you working with the outdoor recreation facility or are you not sure yet whether you want to do a creative project or urban garden or cleanup project? I am going to select urban garden and then that question that answer prompts. The final part of Section One which will ask you to please attach any permits or proof of land use for your lots here. So you can use additional upload section if you have more than one document. But if you have one document that highlights the permits, or proof of land use for the lots here, and that's where you will upload this. So I'm going to click on the next page.
Which brings up sorry if I can jump in quickly just mentioned something about permitting as well. Yeah, no worries. So that option will be great. If you've already received a permit for a project that maybe you had already started maybe it was a community garden you started a few years back and you already received a building permit to change the use of that land to an urban garden. That's great. That's why we're asking that question. Feel free to attach that permit. If you haven't, no worries. That's part of our grant process as well. We have partners at BC EAD here on this call. What we do is if you have a project that is on land that is not permitted. We'll go through that whole process with you Carmel and I will go and make sure that you have your paperwork ready to go so you can get that permit for the correct use of the land. Sorry, Carmen. Go ahead.
No, you're good. Thank you. So now we're on to section two of Section two is covers all of the required documentation. Um, I would just kind of go through some of the some of the documentation that's required. In this section it'll ask you to please upload all of the required attachments, and that these attachments must be submitted in order for your application to be reviewed. The first the first required documentation this as is the IRS 501 C three designation letter. If you are a 501 C three, please upload your organization's 501 C three letter or the 501 C three letter of your fiduciary so if you already have a fiduciary way Metro's also has the option to be a fiduciary. But that's where you upload that information. of you go down to your more information regarding the 501 C three M they're going to ask for your Articles of Incorporation that has to be included. Your bylaws or organizational bylaws, the roster of the Board of Directors members for your organization, or block club. The 2020 to 2023, Michigan annual nonprofit report and the Certificate of Good Standing. We know that you all might have your own annual performing Annual Performance Reports. We're looking for the law reports, and we're also looking for the Certificate of Good Standing to come from Laura as well. And their financial statement also. So for the financial statement, we need the organization's operating budget. Any audits IRS Form 990s or form 990 N dated with the last year of application date. So for the financial statement once again we will be asking for your organization's operating budget audit IRS Form 990 or form 990 N dated with the last year of the application date. Underneath this section M will ask for you to download this ACH form and fill out and upload your organization's banking information. So this form is hyperlinked inside of the application. So you can click on it download and then fill out your organization's banking information and re upload it into the application. And then also if you would provide us with the organization's W nine we have a W nine template also hyperlinked inside of the applicant application if you don't have one on hand, um, if you do then you can use the W nine template that you might already have and upload it there. Following this, we're going to like lat deeds for this project. I selected three lots for Piedmont block club. So you'll see that they're asking for the deeds to all three of my lots. So if you have to lots, one lot, three lots or four lots, they'll ask for the lot deed so each one of those lots, I will click choose file and upload the deeds to those lots in the section. And then beneath that section, it asks for lot photos. So this is where I will go in and upload the photos for each one of the lots that Pete Matsui block club owns in this section and that corresponds with the deeds and then plot plans. So Sam will go in depth about plot plans, but um plot plans are required. In this section they'll they will ask for you to attach your plot plan and that includes all of the plot plans. If you need additional space, they'll provide some extra space in the additional upload section for you to add any additional documents if your blog plan is more extensive, takes up more space. And then this is that additional upload section where if you need to upload renderings, diagrams, graphics depicting proposed installations, for example dimensions or of the installations that you plan to incorporate in your project. You can include all of those additional uploads if needed right here. So this section to section one once again, has your organization information. And then section two is all of the required documentation. And once again, Sam is going to go over plot plans in detail in a bit. So Section three is your project information. It is the information where you input the information for the 2022 neighborhood beautification grant project. And so you know your project can be a I'm Piedmont street block club, so I would say maybe a Piedmont Community Garden
I selected a community garden well
make sure that's right. And then I'm going to request the full $15,000 Um, once again this grant you can receive 500 to $15,000 Max. So you will put your project name here if it's a community garden, if it's a cleanup, if it's a creative project, you place the name of your project here and then the amount of funding that you request it by the requesting somewhere in between the minimum and maximum or the maximum funds. Make sure to put that there and then once again, I select the community garden so we'll following the name of your project ask you which eligible category does your project fit in, and mine will be a community garden. You also can select clean cleanup activities or have a public space activity Sam kind of talks about the Northwest Kohlberg cares in beautifying the basketball court that was an example of a public space activity. Community gardens are really popular with this on this program and then you also have the option once again to do cleanup activities. So after I selected I'm choosing a community garden I'll have to provide a brief description of my beautification project. My project might be to
plant flowers you know,
plant trees, and implement benches and seating area
benches,
etc. So, for this project, I'm just doing a really simple community garden. Nothing fancy. I want to plant flowers. I want to plant trees, maybe create a walkway implement some benches, so just a safe and inviting community space for my neighbors not to enjoy a small community park. In this area here. I will list all three steps that I will take to complete the proposed beautification project. So whatever steps it's going to take for you to complete your proposed beautification project, whether it be a cleanup project, whether it be a public space project or whether it be a community garden, you will list those here. If you need additional space, you can upload a document in the additional upload section below. Each section has an additional upload section if you need it. So, here what are the three steps that you would you will take to complete your your proposed project um you know, once again, I'm going to plant trees. You know, I'm just going very brief. You will be you need to be a lot more descriptive than what I'm being but part of what I'm doing I'm going to do is you know, I'm going to I'm going to plant trees. I'm going to buy seeds for flowers and maybe hire a contractor
to help with pathway whatever
it is, you know, whatever it is that it will take you to complete the beautification project you'll listed here. These are my hypotheticals, you all know what it's going to take. So don't pay too much attention to that. But underneath there you will go into how will this project mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 and the impact that COVID-19 has had on the surrounding community? From my community garden? I am. I'm hoping that mitigates the impacts of COVID-19 by inviting my local community into a space a safe open area where we can gather as a community, we can enjoy a common space, um something like that. So, but you will go in in this section and you will kind of detail how this project is going to help mitigate. However, COVID-19 impacted your community and then also do you have future aspirations for this lot? I for example, plans to purchase this life you're leasing it, etc. And then also where would this project take place for me the project is going to take place on Piedmont street. That's where my lot is. That's where my mind block club owns a lot. So but take place in on Pete my street, and then my proposed date will be I'm going to start this project on January 31. And I'm going to end the project February 28. This is well I'll use I'll use a different date because it opens up February. So I'm going to start my project Tuesday, February 21. And it's going to end on a scope back. I'll be done with this project by March 31. So make sure that you have your proposed start date and then your proposed and date. And then how many residents of this of Detroit do you think will benefit from this project? For me I'll say maybe 75 People who live in a three to four block radius of my my proposed project will benefit and then you have option to upload any additional information here. So now we're moving on to Section four community engagement and impact. I'll go through these these questions. kind of briefly cuz I want to make sure you all have your time. So some of the questions that are in the session are Describe how your organization supports and improves the community. So you have a 50 word limit limit for this. So it's like a brief explanation of how you think your organization supports and improves the community with your existing work. Describe at least one program or project that you have already successfully operated in in your community. So some of you all are already doing some pretty amazing work in the city. Some prisons pretty amazing working your communities, just in 50 words kind of list, one program or project that comes to mind that's been successful in your community. And then describe at least one cleanup project that you have successfully operated in your community. So maybe you all cleaned up some litter and on the lot or you you work to mow the loss and maintain them. List that here. cleanup project that you have already successfully operated and then describe the community outreach that you've conducted or input you received for this project. Specifically, as well. On finally describe any collaborative partnerships your organization is working with within your community to ensure the success of your current or past projects. This can be um, if your organization in partnership with a block code, this can be support that you have from your local block club. If you're a block love this can be the support that you have from your community or other organizations that might exist within your community that have kind of come alongside you in this work to make sure that you all have safe, clean and inviting neighborhoods.
Section five
is going to talk about outcomes in this area. In this section it asks that based on the project area you selected in in the section two of the application. Can you describe your project and the mission of the neighborhood beautification grant, also choose the project outcomes that are most applicable to your project. So you see here that is community garden listed. This would change if you selected cleanup activities or public space. But for this hypothetical, P Masuri. Project I selected community garden so they're going to ask me outcomes related to that. So for community garden, they'll ask me to provide at least two outcomes that are applicable to my project. These include increasing amount of community gathering spaces for social distancing, so I select that I'm also planning on increasing the amount of raised flower gardens or living fences and I want to pick one more um, because I said I was going to plant trees in this increasing amount of trees. You could also select options like reducing blight and impacts of dumping increasing community engagement in neighborhoods and so on so forth. So whatever is the most applicable to your project, it can be more than two, but at least to please list those. And then how will you measure the impact of your project? There's a monitoring and there's a component of this project too. So how will you how are you personally, as a block level organization, continually measure the impact that your project has happened in your community? Will you use photographs? Will you send out surveys to the residents who live in your community? Will you ask and receive feedback in the form of testimonials from community members who who live near your proposed project or will you track the volunteers that you have working on the project through sign in sheets or registrations? Or do you have another creative way to measure the impact of your project? You can select that here. I'm going to use photos and I want to use resident testimonials. So I'm going to talk to my neighbors and I'm going to document photos throughout the process. And I'm with maybe you know people using the space and then project six. Section six is project budget. So this is important. In this section. It'll ask you to provide the budget for your proposed project. Include the dollar amount and a brief explanation of what you will purchase under the budget item description. You are required to attach quotes and or invoices that correlate to the budget line items. So for every budget line item that you list, please include an attached quote or invoice that that justifies that budget line item. And you may also attach additional narratives as needed. allowable and disabled liable costs are listed below so you know what is and what's not allowable. So I'll kind of go through those briefly. Um, common allowable costs are project materials and supplies. You might need a weed whacker. Maybe you need a couple of rakes. Maybe you need some garden hose or something of that nature. So project materials and supplies are laudable project related administrative expenses. Have Sam kind of touched on that but they're not to exceed 10% of the grant allocation. General Liability Insurance is also an allowable costs. equipment rental fees account touched on that if you need if you need it to rent some equipment, and then project related consultant or contractor fees are all allowable costs. Now to get into the disallowable costs, funds cannot be used. All caps could have voted the letters for the following items, programs or services so won't be able to pay for a programming that you want to do within your space or services in that regard. Construction, including but not limited to hoop houses, sheds or pavilions. Sam kind of touched on that property acquisition, home or structure rehabilitation, um, no administrative fees that exceed 10% of the total grant allocation. Any project that requires cement to be poured is not allowable. Projects that do not comply with city ordinances so your project has to comply with the city ordinances. It doesn't support accounting, advertising to solely support the organization. So there's no personal marketing or advertisement that will be paid for through the grant equipment that exceeds $500 per item. So this isn't to get like the law more deluxe. Um, so be mindful of that as well. Um, fundraising activities, does not cover that giftcards of any kind does not cover that fees including but not limited to late and environmental taxes, including but not limited to sales or property taxes. And then also, we don't pay for your utilities your internet your telephone bills, or a copy services, um, vehicle repairs and maintenance. Also, be sure to know that that is also not allowable. So all of these things are listed. And when you get to the budget section, you'll be able to kind of look at that refer to that as you start to build your budget out as you start. To seek and provide your quotes. And then this is where you will list the project budget. There has a section for budget items, the amount and in the budget description. Here you can select for example liability insurance. Here you can select for example, project related administrative costs. Both of those were listed and allowable. So there there are sections for those that are already carved out and then you can fill in the rest of your budget. You know as as you see fit, and but note that it cannot exceed $15,000 here. So for the quotes or invoices, this is the section where you'll upload your quotes or invoices that align with your budget line items. We want you to show us how you came up with the numbers in the budget. So this isn't, you know, pulling numbers out of a hat it's really showing us where this where this Why are you requesting this specific amount? Um, so you can take a look at like some of the industry standards for you know, certain amount of trees, see if class equipment, rental, etc. And then include that here. There's a plenty of space for this but please note also that if you fail to include your quotes, it will most likely affect your eligibility for funding because your budget won't be complete without it. So make sure to include the quotes in correlation with this this budget section up here.
And then here,
this is an exciting part. You're not into the loan. You have a friend, is there call program assistant liaisons? We work with Wayne Metro. I'm the one with the Wayne Metro organization. They are awesome partners. And they are really good about walking alongside you guys in this grant project. There is a program called the program assistant liaison. These people work in relationship with you in a capacity building capacity to those who are awarded funding and you're paired with a Wayne Metro staff person who will act as your collaborator your peer support and brainstorming partner to the funding funding organizations. If awarded these organizations commit to spending at least five hours a month on power related activities which may include meeting site visits, working sessions and goal setting activities. I will just tell you that I've had an opportunity to join some of the grant meetups and hear from organizations who were a part of round one and they had great feedback on the power aspect of this program. So if you do need assistance, Sam and I are available, and also you have partners and Wayne Metro who are available to walk through this, this project with you as well. So be aware of that. I'm going to click yes because Piedmont street block club we need this for our community garden. And you all might need that too. So yes, section this is the final session section eight your eight sections. And this is when you will come in and you'll do your certifications and signature. It's pretty straightforward, your certify that you're legally permitted to represent the organization that you're going to abide by the terms of the neighborhood beautification grant application guidelines, um, and that you certify that the organization and its principles are not presently de barred, suspended, proposed for department declared ineligible or voluntarily excluded from covered transactions by any federal state or local department or agency. You will go in and then step by step you'll certify all of the things that we've asked for in this grant. Are you a 501 C three, you know or are nonprofit organization did you provide your letter you know, all of these different things. Are you a city register block club, do you own the land? Are you proposing to lease or buy the last from Detroit land bank? So all of the things that we've kind of mentioned before are listed here. You're going into section and certified them, sign your name, date it review and you're done. So this is a lengthy, lengthy part. I'm gonna pass it back over to Sam and start sharing. But this application once again opens up on February 8, we hope hope hope that you all are going to apply the city of Detroit and way Metro, all right here to support you in any way, shape, or form. We want to see you all get this Fonz. We want to see our city revitalized, we want to see our neighborhoods coming to life in the spring. So we're excited. And with that, I'll pass it back over to Sam.
Thank you, Carl. That was really excellent. I know. I know. It can seem really lengthy, but we wanted to make sure that everyone could at least see what the application will look like. We know that it's not going to go live for another two weeks. So we just wanted to make sure that everyone could see you know, it just helps to visualize it as you're getting these documents ready that you kind of know what the questions will be asking and what we're going to need. Well, we'll talk a little bit more Carmel already went into great detail about all of this. I'm just going to summarize again. Kind of the bird's eye view of what you can get ready now to get ready for February. Because the earlier you work on this, the better. Certainly the earlier that you managed to submit an application in the application period. The more that Carmo and I will be able to help you with any documents you may have missed, or any errors we may have found in your application. We can do that all the way up to the deadline. But as soon as that deadline hits, our hands are tied as well and we just have to review what we have. So again, I know it's a lot of information. We're going to provide this presentation for you. We'll provide the recording for you. We'll have other checklists and resources. This is just to make sure you got it in your brain, you know what you're going to see when the application goes live. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the required documentation because you've seen all this. This is the completed online application. We asked those questions about community support. Again, it's really important to us that these are projects that will support the public and the community as a whole. We can't support private projects with these funds, but we can support things that are going to benefit the whole neighborhood. your budget, your plot plans, we'll talk about the plot plans a little bit in just a minute. Your deeds a partnership letter and 501 C three documentation. Again, I mentioned it will provide this checklist for you no need to take notes. Now I know that I know that there's a lot of words on the screen, but we also have some helpful helpful links here. We have a link to a plot plan guide so you can understand if you need more detail about what you should include. You can just click on this blue link here. I've mentioned it in the chat a couple of times. But if you're a nonprofit or a faith based organization and you're partnering with a block club, we have that letter ready for you you do not need to go and make that from scratch. You'll click on this blue link, you'll download it, print it out, bring it to your meeting with the block club and if everyone's happy, we just need some signatures and you're good to go. And again, we've talked a lot about the 501 C three information. If you are a 501 C three this is what we need from you. These are also helpful blue links that will send you to the State of Michigan where you can request certain documents if you don't have them. This is a great packet to have. If you are a 501 C three, and you're interested in receiving other grant funding almost any grant that you ask for as a 501 C three is going to ask for these documents so we can help you get those together. Get it into a nice little bundle and just keep it you know safekeeping in your in your filing cabinet. So that next time you apply for another grant, you've got it ready to go. So I'm going to take a minute to talk about plot plans and again plot plans. Some people find plot plans challenging. I know that being a visual learner or a visual person is a special skill set. Not everyone has it. Don't worry, Carmel and I are here to help with this. If this is something that worries you and you're not sure how you're going to be able to do it for your project. It's really a very important document though in your application. Because again, we spoke about working with B seed the building safety engineering and environmental department to permit your project. That's part of this grant process. It's not something you will do alone. But this document is the single most important thing you can give us to help you permit your project. It's also required for funding so it's something you got to do but again, we're here to help you up to the Grant deadline. So please help us out to if you know that this is something you're going to need some assistance with reach out early, we can work on this together. But Carmel in my workload, you know, we're also going to get much busier closer to that deadline. So we have the most ability to help earlier rather than later. And so what is a plot plan? It's a measured drawing. It can be done by hand on graph paper if you'd like or you can do it on the computer. And it's meant to show what is currently on your land. What you're proposing to add to your land and what you're proposing to remove from your land. So if even if you're doing a cleanup project, we need to see it we need to know okay, maybe in this back corner near the alley, that's where all the overgrowth is, and we're going to come and remove this tree and this tree, but we're going to leave those trees up near the front of the street because we like those. That's information we need to know. If you're proposing gardens or benches or anything else, it's really important that we know it and also just know how big they're going to be. Again, this is a measure drawing, which means that the measurements are important. Don't let that intimidate you because we aren't asking for a lot of technical information. The most important thing is we need to make sure that your garden elements are five feet away from the edges of your parcels. That's called a setback. And that's to keep anything from getting too close to a neighbor. If you are planting an orchard that's going to be 15 feet, but usually five feet is the is the rule of thumb that we use and we just want to see everything labeled. So again, this can be done by hand. If you're not good with a computer, don't worry. But please reach out to Carmel and I if you do need help to make sure that you have all the required information again up to March 10. We're here to help if you submit your application on on February 9, your your you've just jumped right in and you get it done and your plot plan is missing details. We can reach out to you and help you correct that. But if you're submitting if you're submitting on March 9 At midnight, that's going to be very, very, very difficult for us to be able to make those corrections on your behalf. So we just encourage again, earlier you apply the best chance we all have to work them together and getting those grant funds out. I've also just been reminded by Eric are one of our partners at BC and do not submit for your own permit. We are going to do this as part of the process together. As long as you make your your plot plan as long as you get your information together. All the information you include in your application is going to be the information we'd need to file a permit on your behalf. Again, this is actually an opportunity, believe it or not, because you get all that information done with us upfront. And we take you through that whole process. You don't have to worry at all about about working through that process because we'll be working right alongside you. And again, we have great partners at deseed Eric and Peter on this call and they work with us every step of the way with your project to make sure you're good to go.
So what do I include in
my plot plan? This is just another kind of handy illustration. I've already listed a number of these features but looking at the the example that we had there and the image you can see when I say we need a lot with a lot length. You can see where that's labeled. We have a we have a website that we can send you that will help you find this information if you don't have it. We want to know where the alley is where the street is and where the sidewalk is. This is about orientation. This is so when we look at it. We know you know when you say we want to clear out the brush near the alley. We want to make sure we don't get confused and think you want to clear out those beautiful trees by the street. This is this is again just helping us understand your project. existing items like I was saying, You like those trees. You want to keep those trees that's great. That five foot setback and this is important because then when you say what you're proposing, all that we have to do is see that it's within that five foot dotted line. In the case of my drawing what I like to do is when I work on graph paper, I make every square five feet. So all you have to do is draw a single square inside your property line and you can just count by fives to make a nice measure drawing and everything is very easy and clean. Addresses. Again, it's about orientation. Let us know what's the addresses of the parcels you're working on. How many parcels are you including in your project? A North arrow again orientation. This is something we're happy to help with. Just again please earlier than later. This is an important little bit of terminology includes somewhere on your plot plan the addresses and the change of use you're proposing. Most of you will be proposing a change of use to urban garden will work with you if you're proposing a different change of use, but you want to make sure you write that down. So our partners at V seed know that they're looking at an urban garden when they see this image. And then just some contact information, you know, because we're going to correspond with you if we have any questions and having that mailing address and phone numbers important because when you get your permit it's gonna be you know, a paper, but we'll send it to you digitally but we also need to make sure we have that mailing address so that we can send you your documents. And so where do I find information on my lots, this is one resource. We you know, we will confirm with you that the information that you get from this site is the most up to date, but it's a great resource where you just click this link. You'll go to a site like this, type in your, your address here and it'll tell you your length and width of your parcel. Right 100 feet by 30 feet. Really easy to do. It'll also tell you your zoning, if you need to confirm that you're in the correct zoning district. So okay, timeline. Here we go. This is good. We're January 25. That's today. You're already the most proactive group that we've got because you're here today with us right now. We'll have another information session next Wednesday at 5pm. It will be an opportunity for people who couldn't make this session. So if you've got a neighbor who asked you know how did that session go? Invite them to the next one, because we'll cover some of the same information. But we'll make sure we go into detail the same way that Carmel went into great detail today on the application. We're going to really get to detail about the plot plans and the permitting process. Again, this is just it's not meant to overwhelm you. This is just so you know, and there's no surprises when you go through this process with us. But as soon as you apply and as soon as you get into this grant process, you have our help every step of the way. February 8, two weeks from today, the application will reopen on the Wayne Metro website. We'll provide a link to that. You can also go to our website on the city and we'll redirect you to Wayne Metro for that application. And the application closes Friday, March 10. So you have about a month. It's good that you're at this meeting again today because you got a month and a half you're two weeks ahead of the curve right and we'll have one more information session February 22. That will be mostly focused on questions. We won't do any of this big long descriptions of the application. You can just come with your pressing questions that you need before March 10 comes and again, I've said it a lot. March 10 is the last date to submit your documents. Please take that seriously because we can help you before March 10. But when that date hits, we have to close our books and start reviewing everything we've received. So here's some of the important sites that you can use. We will again be providing this to you later. Don't feel like you need to write this down right now. But we will be hosting the application on the Wayne Metro website. And this website. The second one for the lot licensing program. This is actually to send you to the map where you can search for eligible neighborhood lots and we'll make sure that you know how to apply for the lot licensing programs specifically. Because again, we need to work with the land bank to confirm that those lots are available. Before we then go and apply for the beautification funds. We'll work with you to make sure you're in that process and everything goes smoothly. So plot plan and permitting session again next Wednesday at 5pm. This is a link you can't click on it on your screen because I know this is a webinar but I am going to copy it and paste it in the chat and you are going to be able to register for that session next week if you'd like. Again, we recommend it more information, the better encourage your neighbors and your partners and your organizations to attend. It's just good to know upfront what this application is going to be like when it opens in two weeks. And so thank you all so much. I know I know we talked for for an hour and it's a lot to take in. But I'm going to leave this slide up because this is where you can go for help. This is my email my phone number caramels, email caramels, phone number tamaraws email. We talked about winning Metro and how how much they will be able to support you in this process. They're just excellent partners running this grant. You can email them, you can call them they're on the call with us right now if you have questions for them in the chat, and then we have a whole variety of office hours as well. If you'd like to talk to Carmel are i on a video call like this about your project comm on Wednesdays 9am to 11am or Fridays 11am to 1pm. Again, we'll post these this presentation online and all you have to do is click this blue link and you'll get sent right to our our virtual office hours. And then our partners B seed and the land bank and some of the other city departments that work more broadly on land based projects. They also offer office hours and we'd have the link here. I don't know it's every other Thursday and unfortunately right now I do not know if that starts this week or the next week. But we have Eric computer on the call and maybe they can correct me about when you can expect to join those office hours as well.
So sorry, Eric, I think you're muted.
looking it up.
Yeah, too. Sorry about that.
will get you that information in the chat.
Right. Yeah, because I think it starts next week. Cool. It starts the let's see it starts February the ninth is the very the ninth is the next one. Let's see here. So February the 26th will be the next one was today. That's no that's not right. It's like yeah, today is tomorrow is the next one and then the next one after that is denied.
Excellent. Okay. And we'll again, we're going to be updating our website with all of these helpful links. We'll provide dates we'll provide phone numbers. Again, I know it's a lot of information to take on but you all being here today is the best advantage you could give yourself because you just know what's, what's there in front of you and how we're here to help. So with that, I'm going to start looking through the chat for any questions. We can also if you raise your hand, we should be able to allow you to unmute and and ask your question over the call, but I'm gonna leave this slide up just for everyone to be able to take down our okay, yes, the links to the February 1 session. I will put in the chat right now. Carla can you help take a look at questions while I while I find that.
Yeah, I'm looking at um, I'm looking in the chat now.
Awesome
All right,
I see a hand up from Crystal. Let me see if I can unmute you.
Crystal you should be able to unmute and ask your question.
Crystal. Are you able to unmute will go to Jacqueline next outset. Crystal says no.
Brenda thank you goes. I think Brenda had a question. Jacqueline had a question. Brenda as Sam do we have we do have the for lots we can apply that we can apply for but are interested in purchasing the adjacent lot. Maybe we should start with the lots we already have and tried to acquire the additional lights?
Yes, that is? That's that's a great question. We do encourage you to only apply for the grant. If you currently own the lots. The lot licensing program is an alternative but if you're planning to purchase land from the land bank for this program, we would encourage you to take care of that first, get your deeds in order and then the next round of funding we will have another round of funding.
We will
be able to sorry I'm reading and speaking at the same time and that's not a good idea. We will be able to take your application once you have your deeds. CRYSTAL I see your question and sorry about not being able to help you on mute but your lot is land bank owned it is city property, but it has not been handed over to the dlba yet. Yeah, that's fine. It doesn't need to be owned by the land bank but we do need you to have the deed for the land if you'd like to do a project on that land. Savannah from the dlba also dropped a really helpful email inventory cap at Detroit land bank.org They're great partners and they'll be able to to help I see Savannah has her hand up right now. Savannah you shouldn't be able to
think
am I here can you hear me? Yep, go ahead. We can Okay, great. Hi, everyone. I'm Savannah Robbins. I'm the Landry's manager over at the Detroit land bank. So I just wanted to hop on to tell you a little bit about the timeline of working with the dlba. So to purchase lots through our creative project program. It takes on average three to eight months, because the purchase process requires title work and a closing and sometimes the title work doesn't come back clear and has to go through a process called Quiet title. So the reason that we're not encouraging people to try to purchase land for this round of grant funding is because there will not be enough time we will be launching the lot licensing program. So those lots you will be able to license lots from us for a temporary period and use these funds and all that will go live on our website here in the next couple of weeks. And you'll be able to see that we'll send out communications when those links are live and those applications are live. The creative project application stays live. So if you wanted to start a property purchase for the next round of grant funding, we would encourage you to do so but not for this February March round for this year. I dropped that email in the chat as Sam said, so if you have any questions for the dlba just go ahead and shoot us a message and we can get some information over to you. Thanks. Thanks, Sam.
Jacqueline Moore has a question. She asked how can I get the partnership letter template now?
Yes, we, we I can even drop that link in the chat. I'll place it in the chat in just a minute. It'll take you to a Google Drive link and you can download it right from there. But we'll also be hosting it on our website soon as well. And you'll be able to find it on our on our website. And I just wanted to follow up on what Savannah said because it's really helpful to understand the timeline. If you do not yet own the land, this is a great opportunity to start that process. And knowing that we will have funding in the future. Again, this is a great, you know, best time to start right now. And the same goes for block clubs. We can help you find a block club in your area. If you do not know your block club, but if you're planning on starting a block club we encourage you to start that process. But in all likelihood you would be applying for grant funding next round. These things just take time we're going to keep having these opportunities available to you. Just being vigilant and starting now is the best way to open yourself to those opportunities.
Okay, Juan de lo Anderson s will we have access to the forest through department to provide estimates for tree removal if the plot land bank own if the plot land bank own lot has fallen trees
that's a good question.
I don't know the answer to that. But let me follow up for you. If you can email me that question. Just send it to the email there. I'll I'll find an answer to the best of my ability. I just don't know right now.
We're getting
questions about a sample of the application posted on the website. In the meantime, we can see if we can if we can do that. Again. We will also have this meeting available as a recording so you can always just go back to the part where Carmo walks through if you'd like. But we can't we can't post the link yet because the application is not live until the eighth.
Yeah, and you'll be able to see how can we see the app. Mr. Lawrence, you asked how to GAO can we see the app form in all of his drop down menus? When the link goes live to the application you all will be able to see everything that I walked through. But like Sam said the recording, you can go back to this specific section that I went through and you can see the drop down menus. The drop down menus that populated in the application form that I was completing was was as a 501 C three organization that was working on a community garden project. So also please note that those drop down menus will differ based off of how you're how you're applying if you're applying as a 501 C three LLC, faith based work in partnership with a block club, and depending upon your your project type, whether there's a cleanup activity, a public space activity, or a community garden, but all of those will, you'll be able to see them when the application goes live, or you can kind of rewatch that
recording.
So I see a number of questions or hands up and I'm gonna try to go through those Carmilla will do her best to answer some of the questions in the chat. So we'll try to we'll try to balance it I know we've got a lot of questions. I do see Jacqueline more. Your you have your first hand up I know you asked the question in the chat but if you'd like to unmute and ask your question. You can
Yes, I do you have a question. Had a couple but I'll just start with one of them. The operating board I put it in the chat as well. Can you hear me? Okay? Yes. Word I see in the application we have to submit our board. How should that be submitted? Is there a certain form you want on the we just list the names of those who are on the board? What is the appropriate way to submit that? Yes,
you can just submit a document with the names and the responsibilities of the people on the board. Tamra please correct me if I'm wrong, but we've we've received documents like that and that should be fine.
Thanks, Miss Moore.
I'm sorry. Can you repeat the question, Sam?
Yes, it was about a format where to submit the operating board?
Yes. So basically, she could just Yes, you could just submit the operating board names right in the application and get give us their contact information.
Yeah, great.
Thanks. I believe that that is the way that you're doing it right Jordan? I'm gonna bring Jordan in. I don't know she has a she has that. You can let her speak but joy. Can you speak to that
please? Sure. Yeah. So
if you just kind of like what Sam said if you have a document with the names and the responsibilities of each of the board members, some people include contact information. We're just looking for a document that details your board roster, and then there'll be a place for you to upload it into the application.
Thank you. Yep, no, thank you.
Next, I see wonder if you'd like to unmute
Yes,
I believe you address it but um, there is a vacant lots that are land bank owned, that may have fallen trees. I was just wondering if there is no one from Fourth Street that will assist in this application process. Is there a list of contractors that work with the city that we could reach out to as opposed to trying to, you know, reach out to outside contractors and wait for them to come out and so I'm just in terms of timeline and saving a lot of legwork?
That is
a good question. And it's something I can follow up on from the city side. Savannah, I don't know if you have any extra information about fallen trees on land. Bank land.
I do not
I don't know if Roslyn harbor is on this call our sales and programs manager. I don't know if she has more information about trees.
Okay. Yes, I am on the call. Good morning, everyone. I can do an inquiry to the maintenance department. That would fall up under our maintenance team so I can reach out and get some information and even provide an an email so if you guys could afford me that information. I'll drop my email in the chat
and I can follow up and provide your why I appreciate that. Next we
have oh crystal, I see that you've managed to unmute if you'd like to answer or ask your question.
Yes, sir. Good morning. Good morning family. So um, we have a double lot in our neighborhood. It's right around the corner from me is not land bank own yet but the city the city has incurred you know said that weekend. If I kinda like submitted proposal, it might encourage the land bank to pick it up. But it's city owned property right now. So um, with the timeframe that we're working in right now being like a month and a half. What do you think I can do to beautify the city own lot that's right here in our neighborhood.
Yeah, that's a good question. Um, if you could reach out to, to me by email, and maybe, maybe CC, Rosalyn or Savannah, they just dropped their information in the chat as well. Add them to that email. I think I just need to see the law a little more specifically. I can look it up and try to understand a bit better. Again, I'd say like, the, the hope is that we're able to get you on a path towards securing that law if that's what you'd like. But we would, we would be looking towards the next round of funding, but those lots may be eligible for a licensing cleanup. In the meantime, we can work through that I think just sending us an email or call giving me a call so that we can work one on one and try to see that the specific lops would be really helpful.
Okay, wonderful. When's the next round of funding start?
As an excellent question that I'm going to send to Tamra.
Okay. Thank you.
When that the next round of funding start, you mean the one that starts on February 8 and goes to march
10? No, ma'am,
the next round,
we haven't made that decision yet. Okay, thank you. We just trying to get through this round. So give us a chance
to make payments. And we will we'll announce that later on in the year once we get through this this upcoming round. Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Crystal.
Next we have Frank Aldridge if you'd like to unmute.
Mr. Aldridge, I don't I don't think we can hear you yet. If you'd like to drop your question in the chat. We can talk about it. Or if you're able to unmute just let me know.
Okay, I've just unmuted Can you okay,
we can hear you. Yep. Okay.
I just had a question. And I raised this yesterday during the district three meeting. The project that I have in mind is one that I had implemented before under with some funding that was provided by the Kresge Foundation, and it involved six properties that reside on a SATA drive between Sherwood and Concord. And over time, three of the houses were raised, they were brought down, and the other three were available. For purchase. And the whole idea behind the beautification of that particular project was, you know, just try to manage the vegetation, keep the area clean, and we do coordinate with the Land Bank Authority, because a few of those last two were fallen trees and coordinated with them and they had those trees removed but the whole idea behind it was to enhance the enhanced the property by just managing the vegetation. And fortunately, there were those three those houses that were vacant, were purchased. And that project ended last year. And the hope was that the people who bought those houses were not only it has to house but also by the sidelights. Well, that didn't happen. And so it's my understanding, and I have to confirm this and you and I kind of briefly talked about I guess I've got to give you some some, some addresses. To confirm who really owns their property. But my project would not necessarily call for purchasing those lots. What we want to do is just try to have that area maintain to stave off the Blight that was emerging prior to the work that we have put in and previously I got some funding hired a contractor that came in over roughly about 18 months or so and manage that it was mostly during the spring through, you know, through the early fall. And so we kept looking good with the idea of it that people would want to buy that property My concern is that spring is approaching us now. Vegetation is going to grow. And it won't be managed because there's not a dedicated effort to try to do that anymore. And with the Kresge Foundation, the endgame was to have people buy the property and hopefully by the sidelines and even though there's one existing resident there that's holding down his property, he's chosen not to buy the site lot. And now the other two houses are vacant, they just became vacant. And my concern is that is that that blight that was originally emerges is going to resurface. So other the licensing program, I was not necessarily looking for the funding, maybe that's, that's an angle I could take. But I was just looking to see if that property is actually owned by the land bank, would they own that response? I know they come in and cut that by the fact they would come in maybe three or four times a year and cut the grass on those vacant lots. But three or four times a year is not a lot. So the contractor I had was coming in every other week. So I'm just trying to strategize now, how to not let this situation worsen itself so that it resembles what I saw. A few years ago. And and so if it's owned by the by the Land Bank Authority authority under the licensing was called the licensing program. Who would own the responsibility of maintaining those lots if I if I was to submit an application for work to be performed in that area?
Mr. Aldridge, if you wouldn't mind reaching out to me directly, I put my email in the chat. I'll pull up those lots for you and we can get on the phone and talk through the scenario and see what can be done about the lots in the long term. I don't know without having addresses if they would be available for this program, but we can definitely address your concerns. So again, my name is Savannah Robbins, my email is in the chat.
And Mr. Aldridge feel free to cc me on that as well. And we can we can all work together as a team to figure out if the if the grant might be an opportunity as well. So we we've reached 1030 And I want to be respectful of everyone's time. We've had a lot of great partners join us on this call. I know we probably still have some outstanding questions. I'm going to do my best to go through the chat after the after this meeting is over. Please also feel free to reach out again, all our contact information is there. Give us a call. Send us an email. We'll have that session again next week. And again, we'll be posting it. We're trying to make this just we're giving you as many resources as we can to make this successful. And we really do hope that you submit an application and join us on this project. So with that I'm going to wish you all have a good rest of your snow day and and we'll hopefully get to see or hear from you soon. Thank you.