CCADC will partner with Charles City on EPA grant potential program

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Area Development Corp. has agreed to partner with Charles City in the city’s application for about a $20 million Community Change Grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The city has been working on the application with a professional grant writer for a couple of  months, incorporating projects that include riverfront sustainability; community walkability, connectivity and accessibility; municipal facilities efficiency and resiliency; green and healthy homes; and other projects. The application is due Nov. 21.

The grant application requires the city to partner with a local non-profit organization to implement part of the projects, and the CCADC voted at its monthly meeting Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, to be that partner.

Specifically, the CCADC’s part of the program would be the green and healthy homes component, which would provide new furnaces and other appliances to homes that meet income guidelines, and help with the cost of removing 350 trees from private property and planting another 520 trees.

Tim Fox, the CCADC chief executive officer, said the total investment being applied for in the Area Development Corp. part of the grant is $1.768 million, of which $204,500 would come back to the organization for administering it.

If approved as part of the city’s grant application, the program would allow households that meet income guidelines to receive up to $22,000 per home to go toward a possible combination of new furnace or HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), water heater and work needed to provide electrical service to the appliances.

Fox said the key to the grant is that the appliances have to be electric.

“I think the dynamic is that they want to reduce the in-air particulates associated with a natural gas furnace,” Fox said.

The other part of CCADC’s part of the project would be $750,000 for removing dead trees and planting new trees.

Steve Diers, the Charles City city administrator, said the city just spent $525,000 removing dead ash trees from the parking area along streets and in other public places, and this grant would help people remove dead trees and replant on private property.

The Community Change Grants Program is administered by the EPA and is part of the federal Inflation Reduction Act.

It is making $2 billion available “in environmental and climate justice activities to benefit disadvantaged communities through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges.”

CCADC member Kurt Herbrechtsmeyer noted that the CCADC for many years had overseen a furnace replacement program for low income households using funds from a USDA Rural Development Grant through the Iowa Finance Authority.

“There was always a need for that,” Herbrechtsmeyer said. “So this does backfill that.”

Fox said the qualification for the program would be a simple household income verification, rather that one of the more onerous qualification processes that includes things like household assets.

Almost all of Charles City and large areas surrounding the city are considered “disadvantaged” according to the EPA guidelines, and could qualify for projects within the EPA Community Change Grant program.

The EPA is accepting applications and making the grant money available “to support community-driven projects that build capacity for communities to tackle environmental and climate justice challenges, strengthen their climate resilience and advance clean energy.”

While still being finalized, the city’s grant application, which it is dubbing “Sustainability Over Susceptibility (SOS) Charles City,” could include such items as:

• The CCADC programs – $1.768 million.
• Whitewater course repairs and renovations – $5 million.
• Four acres of solar power cells at the city wastewater treatment facility – $3.5 million.
• A bouldering wall at Whitewater Park with native plantings – $700,000.
• High-efficiency HVAC at Public Library – $697,200
• High-efficiency HVAC system for City Hall – $650,000.
• ADA accessible intersections at 10 locations – $600,000.
• Pedestrian Mall renovations between City Hall and the public library – $500,000.
• Solar energy at City Hall – $500,000.
• Solar energy at the Public Library – $500,000.
• Sidewalk from new housing developments to South Grand and to Charley Western Trail – $430,000.
• Exterior restroom at City Hall for use by Riverside Park visitors – $400,000.
• Parking lot and sidewalk updates at Sportsmen’s Park – $396,000.
• Lighting along portion of Charley Western Trail – $300,000.
• Burn box at brush disposal site – $300,000.
• EV charging station at library – $200,000.
• Extending trail to Sportsmen’s Park – $118,800.

The grant application could also include about $2 million in administration, management, and other costs.

Persons involved in putting the grant application together are City Administrator Diers, CCADC CEO Fox, Mayor Dean Andrews, City Council member Phoebe Pittman and Tourism & Marketing Coordinator Ginger Williams.

Members of that group said some of the project prices are rough estimates, and the final project list is still in flux as the grant application is being finalized.