LAPEL — After being denied twice in a request for an Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) grant, the town of Lapel is looking to make some changes to help obtain funds needed for water-related issues in town.
Town council President Deb Wainscott said members of the council met with OCRA and Mike Kleinpeter of Kleinpeter Consulting, the organization that does the grant application, on Monday in hopes of improving Lapel’s chances of receiving the government funds.
At a public hearing last week, Kleinpeter said Lapel had scored well in the OCRA scoring system, but the best way to improve the score would likely be for the town to provide a larger match amount.
That is what the town wants to do, and it will vote on the new application at tonight’s town council meeting.
Wainscott said they want to raise the town’s portion to $200,000 and lower the grant amount request to $550,000.
In its previous two attempts, Lapel had been looking for $600,000 from OCRA with a $160,000 local match from the town for a combined $760,000 to fund renovations to the Ford Street Well, repair of an elevated water tank and replacing asbestos water lines.
“(At Monday’s meeting) we looked to see if we could raise our designated amount,” Wainscott said. “We went over where we lacked in points, and by providing a larger match, it would put us in better position. Hopefully, we can go for it again and get awarded.”
There is a limited amount of funds available for the grants, which are distributed based on OCRA’s scoring system. When the town was denied in March, the grant money had been absorbed prior to getting to the Lapel request.
In September, Kleinpeter said, the majority of grant money went to town’s that were seeking aid for projects that exceeded $1 million and had larger match amounts.
The town’s proposal is due Oct. 4 and the application must be in by Nov. 22.
In other town business from its Sept. 19 council meeting, the board discussed getting estimates and being reimbursed for repair work by the Indiana Department of Transportation for repair work being done on County Road 650 South, which has been damaged due to construction detour traffic earlier this year.
With concerns on how much money the town would be reimbursed, town attorney Jeff Graham suggested the quote be dependent on INDOT and the council’s approval.
In another matter, the council agreed to no longer charge the Lapel Stony Creek Township Fire Territory a $9,000 annual rental free for fire hydrant usage.
