Local

Stanislaus supervisors watch

By TIM MORAN

tmoran@modbee.com

The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday:

  • Approved a $2.57 million Community Development Block Grant plan for the county and five participating cities: Ceres, Newman, Oakdale, Patterson and Waterford. The money will be spent on a variety of community projects such as sidewalks and storm drains. About 10 percent of the money is set aside for public services to be provided by agencies such as Catholic Charities, Habitat for Humanity and the Healthy Aging Association.

Judy Lawson, a mobile home owner from the Oakdale area, called on the county to set aside more funds for the rehabilitation of mobile homes. The homes are counted as part of the county's low-income housing stock and are used to qualify for the federal Community Development Block Grant funds, Lawson said. Rapidly rising rents in mobile home parks leave homeowners with little money to maintain their homes, she said. Money is used for low-income housing rehabilitation, according to county planners, but work on just eight to 10 homes a year is completed, and only a few of those are mobile homes.

"There's a huge need out there and only a certain amount of money we can use," said Kirk Ford, interim planning director. "Eight to 10 is all we can do."

Latino community activist Miguel Donoso told the board it wasn't setting aside enough money for public service programs and wasn't providing information on the grant program in a format the public could understand. Ford said that the grant plan has been available for comment for 30 days.

Vote: Unanimous

  • Allocated $700,000 from the Redevelopment Housing Set-Aside Fund for land acquisition for housing rehabilitation. Meeting as the county Redevelopment Agency, the supervisors voted to spend the money on buying property in redevelopment areas and unincorporated communities. The staff report says there are 10,000 homes in the foreclosure process in Stanislaus County. The money will allow the county to buy 12 housing units.

    • Vote: Unanimous, consent calendar

  • Approved a housing loan rehabilitation agreement with Habitat for Humanity to spend $199,575 to rehabilitate four houses in the airport neighborhood. The money is also from the Redevelopment Housing Set-Aside Fund.

    • Vote: Unanimous

  • Approved the formation of a county service area in Keyes to pay for the maintenance of a storm drain system and park to be built this summer. The service area would dissolve three service areas in Keyes and fold them into the new assessment area. Residents of the area can approve the formation, which will assess property owners for the maintenance. Ballots will be counted today.

    • Vote: Unanimous

  • Accepted an anonymous donation of $37,000 for the purchase of a patrol car for the sheriff's K-9 unit. "Thank you, anonymous donor, for what you've done," said county board Chairman Tom Mayfield. "I, for one, and all of this board, appreciate it."

    • Vote: Unanimous

  • Approved emergency power and fire suppression improvements at the sheriff's headquarters and public safety center facilities, at a cost of up to $1.536 million. Most of the money will come from public facilities fees collected from developers, with $85,000 coming from the county general fund.

    • Vote: Unanimous, consent calendar

    -- Tim Moran

    This story was originally published April 9, 2008 at 6:49 AM with the headline "Stanislaus supervisors watch."

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