Akron increases help to Rebuilding Together
By Stephanie Kist
DOWNTOWN AKRON — The city of Akron will increase its contribution to Rebuilding Together to $250,000 after Akron City Council passed an ordinance authorizing the increase at its June 11 meeting.
Council sponsored as a whole
and unanimously passed the ordinance that raises the
funding the city will provide to the Minor Home Repair
program. Council members Reneé Greene (D-Ward
4), Michael Williams (D-at large) and Terry Albanese
(D-Ward 6) were absent from the meeting and later excused.
The city will use a portion of
the funding it receives from the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development to provide an additional
$50,000 this year to Rebuilding Together.
Last year, Rebuilding Together
worked on 80 Akron homes using the funding that comes
from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.
“The need is great for
our disabled and elderly residents,” said Mayor
Don Plusquellic in a prepared statement released June
11. “And even though the federal government has
made CDBG funds nearly extinct, we have to increase
our investment for these citizens.”
The types of repairs done
for those eligible are plumbing, roofing, heating, electrical,
carpentry work and disability access. The increase in
funding would increase the number of homes that could
be improved, according to Akron’s Director of
Planning and Urban Development Warren Woolford.
“This increase to $250,000
would allow Rebuilding Together to improve more than
100 homes,” Woolford said in the news release.
All homeowners must be low income
and older than 60 or disabled to become eligible.
For more information, call (330)
773-4100.
In other business, Council
authorized improvements to the Lock 3 area behind several
buildings on South Main Street.
According to the legislation,
the project will construct open space improvements behind
the Main Street buildings. The Ohio & Erie Canal
will be opened, and a transition from Bowery Street
to Garden Alley will be constructed.
The improvements will support
an upcoming mixed-use redevelopment of the buildings
between the Landmark Building and the Akron Civic Theatre.
The redevelopment will establish restaurants, office
space and apartments and is expected to be completed
by July 2008, said Public Service
Committee Chairman Bob Keith (D-Ward 8).
The city’s contribution
to the development is about $4.6 million, while the
developer has committed $18 million, Keith said.
Also at the meeting, Council
approved legislation authorizing a contract with the
Ohio Department of Transportation for improvements to
West Market Street between Hawkins Avenue and Twin Oaks
Road. Construction of the $11.1 million project is slated
for 2010. The federal share will be $5.5 million.
Council also:
• continued to take time
on legislation that would authorize a water-sharing
and land-swap agreement with
the city of Cuyahoga Falls;
• approved a $111,000 project
to provide Americans With Disabilities Act-accessible
restrooms on the second and eighth floors of the Stubbs
Justice Center, with construction estimated to be complete
in September; and
• renewed, with a slight
increase in pay, a $26,000 contract with Summa Health
System for the provision of a physician for a half day
a week to provide care for the Akron Health Department
Prenatal Clinic.
The next Council meeting is set
for June 18 at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers on the
third floor of the Akron Municipal Building, 166 S.
High St. Committee meetings
are scheduled for 2 p.m. that afternoon, also in Council
Chambers.
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