Chelan Receives $490,000 Community Development Block Grant

The City of Chelan was told it would receive a CDBG government grant of $490,000 for the expansion theMasonic Temple for a new library.The Friends of the Library state that the plan is to have the library fully renovated by the summer of 2013.

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From a Washington State Department of Commerce news release:

$11 million in federal grants was awarded to rural Washington community projects
Funding will assist infrastructure and facilities improvements

The Washington State Department of Commerce today announced 15 cities and counties throughout the state that will receive over a total of $11 million in federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) General Purpose Grants for 2012. The CDBG program targets assistance to benefit lower income persons in rural areas. The selected projects will improve rural community water, sewer and street systems; housing rehabilitation, fire protection and community facilities. The 15 projects were selected from 36 grant applications requesting over $30 million.

"These funds will improve necessary infrastructure systems and build local capacity for economic development," said Washington State Department of Commerce Director, Rogers Weed. "The infusion of dollars into these rural communities will help bolster them through this economic recession."

The state CDBG program received a 13.8 percent reduction in annual funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the provision of grants to small cities and rural counties. Larger cities and counties receive their own entitlement funding directly from HUD. Since 1982, the state CDBG program has awarded more than $446 million in grants to over 1,200 locally prioritized community development projects.