Indianola gets $706,700 for new storm shelter

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

LINCOLN -- The Nebraska Department of Economic Development has awarded $706,700 through the Community Development Block Grant Neighborhood Stabilization Program 1 to the City of Indianola to help with neighborhood revitalization efforts.

Indianola will use its $706,700 to demolish four blighted buildings and clear the properties for future development, plus demolish a vacant downtown building and redevelop it into a storm shelter for residents who don't have basements or sufficient shelter from inclement and dangerous weather conditions.

The project serves a population where at least 51 percent of residents earn incomes at or below 120 percent of the area median income.

The city's residents will benefit twofold as it was awarded $3,709 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development in August to purchase a new emergency warning siren. The city is contributing $6,891 toward this separate project.

"These two projects will ensure that our citizens are not only alerted on a timely basis, but have a solid course of action to take and a safe place to go in during the event of impending severe weather," said Mayor Michael Harris, City of Indianola, who added that the existing World War II-era siren is unreliable at best, or doesn't work at all.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Neighborhood Stabilization Program 1 is providing the emergency assistance to state and local governments to purchase, redevelop, and rehabilitate foreclosed, abandoned, and vacant properties that otherwise are already or may become inhabitable.

A main focus of the program is to return safe and decent affordable housing units to the market.

The Neighborhood Stabilization Program 1 also allows for the demolition of blighted structures. The program is authorized under Title III of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. DED administers the program.

For information about the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 1, contact Lynn Franzen at (800) 426-6505, (402) 471-3781 or lynn.franzen @nebraska.gov

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  • Congratulatios Indianola! Good job Mike! These federal funds will bring jobs and money to our entire area. The demolition of blighted structures help the community have a fresh face and is much cheaper than remodeling to make a building fit another need.

    -- Posted by dennis on Tue, Oct 27, 2009, at 1:57 PM
  • Nice story on the back page of the paper on the old West Ward school. McCook can not use the stimulus funds now to demolish that old building in large part because of people complaining to the state historical society who has blocked the use of federal funds to take it down. Now the citizens of McCook are stuck with an unusable building, will need to spend $162,000 of local taxpayers money to take the building down or over $500,000 more of local taxpayers money to try to rehab the old building and then it still would not be designed to meet the needs of the city. Maybe those that want to save the building will buy it from the city and fix it with their own money or make the $500,000 donation to the city to rehab the building so the taxpayers will not be left holding the bag. Or maybe the city just does not get a better safety center and city offices.

    -- Posted by dennis on Wed, Oct 28, 2009, at 8:35 AM
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