Newspaper Page Text
Uity ; Region
City receives stern
warning from HUD
By Rhonda Jones
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Augusta traditionally re
ceives thousands of dollars in
Housing and Urban Develop
ment (HUD) funding. Because
of shoddy recordkeeping, the
city could lose that money.
In a letter dated Oct. 25,
2001, the state Housing and
Urban Development office
warned the city that its finan
cial report on the use of HUD
money, called a Consclidated
Annual Performance and
Evaluation Report (CAPER),
was unacceptable.
For one thing it was three
and a half months late. Ac
cordingtotheletter, that alone
is enough to cost Augusta the
HUD money. “If the City con
tinues tosubmit untimelyand
unacceptable CAPERs, we will
invoke the provisions of 24
CFR 91.520(f),” the letter
stated. That particular provi
sion allows HUD to suspend
or withdraw and reallocate
funding.
Elsewhereintheletter, HUD
warns the county that it is in
danger also of being required
to repay some CDBG funds.
Augusta Commissioner
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SOR s N B i E S AT KON W N
Jurgen Brauer, assistant professor of economics at
Augusta State University, will discuss his book The
Economics of Regional Security: NATO, the Mediterranean
and Southern Africa Wednesday, November 14, at noon
at a Meet the Author event at Augusta State University’s
Reese Library, in the Reese Room. For more
information, contract Diane Black at 667-4911.
Marion Williams said that this
was an ongoing problem. “We
never lost any but we were
threatened tolosesome. [think
it comes from a lack of super
vision. We’ve been approving
and doing things to try and
keep things flowing but it just
has not been flowing.”
Part of the problem, Will
iams said, was actually a fail
ure to spend some of the ailo
cated monies.
As of Oct. 25, according to
the HUD letter, the city needed
to spend $89,172 of its Com
munity Development Block
Grant (CDBG) funding by Nov.
Itcbein compliance. Thereis
a rule a~ainst holding back
more than a year and a half of
funding, and the county had
1.53 years’ worth. The letter
does state that the city has
made “substantial progress”
ove' the past year in their
handling of CDBG funding.
Theletter further encourages
Augusta to keep up efforts.
Other problems with
Augusta’s Performance and
Evaluation Report includes
incomplete information, and a
lack of evidence that the city
inspected HUD-assisted rental
housing.
Commissioner Andy Cheek
is not happy about the letter.
“HUD does not take kindly to
the apparent misinformation
they were given.” He said it is
indeed possible that Augusta
may lose funding from this.
“And that is not the kind of
way we want to do business,”
he said.
“Once again, it was a situa
tion where somebody should
have been follewing
recordkeeping in the office,”
he said.
Cheek was asked if this re
port had anything to do with
the resignation of Housingand
Neighborhood Development
director Keven Mack.
“I think he saw the writing
on the wall after that,” Cheek
said. “Whether he was directly
responsible for overseeing the
account or not, as the leader of
that department, he’s ulti
mately responsible.”
Asked if the references to
bad recordkeepingin the HUD
letter are directly related to
the scandal at New Hope Com
munity Center over incomplete
financial records, Cheek said
he thought so. “That’s my
understanding, yes,” he said.
In order to dig itself out of
this hole, Augusta is required
to submit a plan for coming
into compliance with HUD
regulations.
County administrator
George Kolb says it is all un
der control. He doesn’t think
the city is in danger of losing
funding.
“HUD does its annual com
pliancereview,” hesaid. “They
have to, by law, say what they
said.”
Headded that many commu
nities receive warnings just
like this one. “But unless the
programisinreallybigtrouble
there’s usually not a require
ment of paying money back.
There may be some restric
tions.”
Askedtorate Augusta’s situ
ation on a scale of 1-10, with
10 being bad, he said, “Prob
ably five or six.”
Kolbrefused to comment on
the sudden departure of the
Housing and Neighborhood
Development director. “Keven
Mack is gone. He has re
signed.”
The administrator says he
expects that the county will
turn all of the appropriate pa
perwork in, in a timely man
ner.
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AUGUSTA FOCUS
Parking deck
From page one
ing deck goes through with
the changes ir the weather,
and also because of handling
the loads that are placed on
the deck. Not to mention all
the water and junk that gets
intocrevices. “They need tobe
cleaned out and resealed,” he
said. “That’s nothingunusual
with that type of structure.”
As far as security, Johnson
said, the lighting currently
installed is not up to today’s
standards. “Youwantahigher
illumination for security.
People feel more comfortableif
they’ve got more light.”
And, he said, the comings
and goings of automobile and
foot traffic needs to be con
trolled. “Youdon’t want people
to cut through the parking
deck,” he said.
The board is also consider
ing adding a connector from
the deck to the building that
will house their new offices,
which willinclude an elevator.
The school board wants the
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NOVEMBER 8, 2001
parking deck because it is
across from the Davison’s
building, where theboard plans
to move its offices in the next
year and a half.
Chris Naylor, of Main Street
Augusta and-the Downtown
Development Authority,
blames the deck’s disuse on
the building of the Augusta
and Regency malls, which took
department stores away from
downtown.
“Thedeck wasbuilt to hope
fully keep the department
stores out here,” he said. It
didn’t work.
Then there’s the other rea
son. -
“Well,” Naylorsaid, “I think
that there has been a some
what real and somewhat per
ceived security concern with
it. There’s no security person
nel. I think another
problem...parking downtown
until recently has been fairly
easy, but because of the new
shops and restaurants and
artists’ galleries, parking has
become more of a premium.”
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