pMASSENA — Village of Massena officials are considering contracting with the Development Authority of the North Country to expand the village’s housing program./ppBy bringing in DANC’s expertise, Mayor Timmy J. Currier said, the village wants to take advantage of more grant and other funding opportunities that it hasn’t been able to pursue with a part-time staff./pp“If you look back in history, it seems like we’ve had a few local housing coordinators. There hasn’t been any consistency on our part. That hinders our ability. In one case, we had to return money,” he said. “We talk about blight; we talk about the need to improve our neighborhoods. There are a number of other opportunities under the HUD program that we haven’t even looked at. Bringing in expertise makes sense.”/ppMr. Currier said that in the past, they’ve contracted with Phillip Smith of Avalon Associates to write grant applications./pp“He kind of helps us coordinate the process once those grants are received,” he said./ppDale Beaulieu, a retiree who had previously served as a fire driver and worked in the village’s Code Enforcement Office, has been serving as the village housing coordinator. But, Mr. Currier said, Mr. Beaulieu had only committed to do that for the short term. The office also has a part-time housing program secretary./pp“Most of the expenses of that office are covered under the grants, sometimes all of them. My goal is to actually expand the Housing Office and do more grants. If we do more grants, we obviously have to have more support to provide these services,” Mr. Currier said./ppDANC could provide services at a cost that would be based on how many of its services the village used. While the village would pay a portion of the costs for administration, some of DANC’s work would also be covered by grant funding./pp“Just about a year ago, we started having some discussions with DANC with regard to some of the services they offer and the various things that we’re looking to do in this community,” Mr. Currier said. “One of the key items we discussed was the housing efforts such as blight and affordable housing. DANC is very good at what they do. We’re working with DANC on a number of other initiatives and ideas.”/ppHe said the cost to the village could include writing housing-grant applications. And, since the village also employs grant application writers, he said there may be occasions where they could work together on the grant applications./ppMichelle Capone, director of regional development for DANC, said they’re already working with several communities, including with Ogdensburg officials to address housing issues in the city./pp“Currently, we’re overseeing several different programs for municipalities across the region,” she said./ppMs. Capone said they’ve been successful in applying for and receiving Community Development Block Grants that target Ford Street and New York Avenue in Ogdensburg./pp“It’s been very successful,” she said./ppMs. Capone said they could provide the same types of services in the village, including applying for grants, identifying applicants who might be eligible for the funding, reviewing applications for eligibility and working with applicants and engineering staff to have the work done on the applicants’ homes./p
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