FULTON – Executive Director of Fulton Community Development Agency Joseph Fiumara met with the Common Council Tuesday, July 9, to discuss updates regarding programs and grants for projects in the city.
CDA is in the works of three rehabilitation projects, two of which are helping elderly residents of Fulton. These projects help residents rid their homes of code violations by using grant money for repairs.
Fiumara said one house had a furnace from the 1950s and was only working at 30% efficiency. In these three projects CDA are helping to replace windows and a leaky roof.
“We have these people, especially the eldery, the disabled, get them to us so we can do these repairs,” Fiumara said.
Fiumara said he has noticed people, often the elderly, are reluctant to apply for this program because they do not want to burden their children with the cost of the program should they die before the mandatory five years of staying in that house after the program.
“It’s forgiven as long as they stay there for the regular term period,” Fiumara said. “What they don’t realize is that we are normally doing capital improvements that are going to make the house worth something at least if they did have to sell it or went into a nursing home or something.”
Fiumara also discussed an update on Fulton’s final application to the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. The application was submitted June 1 and a presentation was given June 20, featuring a video showing who and what the $10 million grant would help.
“We heard our application was definitely in the top two and the presentation, we’re hoping, put it over the edge,” Fiumara said. “I was able to sit back and watch their faces when they watched the video and the presentation up until that point was okay… they gave us a standing ovation with the video.”
He said the Regional Economic Development Council is scheduled to meet this Thursday for the final decision, so he expects to know the results of the competition between seven cities anytime between Thursday and about 10 days after depending on the status of other state projects.
Fiumara then said he plans to submit two and possibly a third new grant to the Consolidated Funding Application. The first focuses on updates to the Fulton Public Library.
The Community Development Block Grant would help to make the library more handicap accessible and renovate the community room. This would cost no more than $300,000.
The board members voted unanimously to pass this resolution so the application can be submitted.
The second grant Fiumara is submitting is to help 10 businesses on West Broadway.
If everything goes to plan, those storefronts should each get about $50,000 to help update.
So far, he has met with half the owners, but needs 75% of the units to participate to look good for the state reviewers to get the grant.
The board members also voted unanimously to pass this resolution so the application can be submitted.
The third grant application he may propose to submit to CFA is for a feasibility study of the former SOFCO site.
It is now cleared for building, but before anything can be done with the 4.1 acre site, it is necessary to do a study on it.
As of now, there can be no living spaces underground in a basement. He said he would like to have a restaurant on the first floor and a hotel over it.
“We have partners in around us that own hotels in Oswego County that… know this is an untapped market and they want to get here,” Fiumara said. “It’s got to have enough parking to support it on site, which 4 acres should be enough and the other thing is, we’ve got to be able to get utilities on site.”
missing or outdated ad config