HUMBOLDT — Humboldt officials agreed to begin the application process for a $350,000 grant that would fund a new community building, likely to house a new senior citizens center.
The grant, if approved, requires only a 15 percent local match. The city would spend a total of about $10,000. Allen County commissioners have already pledged to chip in $50,000 in cash and in-kind contributions as part of the application.
Vocal opposition by a pair of Humboldt residents to the planned location for the center — near a proposed senior housing complex along the north edge of Humboldt — led Humboldt City Council members to say Monday they will move quickly to determine if an alternate site could be found.
Today was the deadline for the amended application.
“I’m not objecting to a new senior center,” Connie Isaac said. “But a senior center should be in a central part of town.”
Isaac and Shirley Breiner both spoke extensively at Monday’s meeting and said they had spoken with others in town who shared their opinions.
Building a larger community building would mean increased traffic in what otherwise would be a quiet neighborhood of primarily elderly residents, Isaac said. Bill Caton of Excel Development Group, Auburn, is seeking state tax-credit funding to build at least 12 senior apartmentsnear Arrowood Lane residential care facility.
Isaac noted she would be interested in selling her home and moving to such a senior housing complex, but not if it contained a full-scale community building and senior citizens center.
“This would not be the community building we think we’d be getting,” she said, because it would be open to the entire community, not just seniors. Isaac also said she would oppose a plan where the community center would serve as a site for congregate meals.
THE COUNTY approached the city about the grant after a tour last week of the existing Humboldt Senior Center on Bridge Street revealed the dilapidated building is not worth fixing.
“That building is past the point of no return,” Humboldt City Administrator Larry Tucker said. “The county is not inclined to put any more money into fixing it because it’s not worth the cost.”
After the county expressed interest in joining forces, Tucker said Humboldt agreed to seek a larger CDBG for a larger building. The center would be built on one-half acre near the intersection of Seventh and Franklin Streets, adjacent to Arrowood Lane.
Council member Sean McReynolds said he, too, had concerns about moving the senior center to the edge of town and emptying another building along the square.
Susan Galemore, of the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission, which oversees the CDBG program locally for the Kansas Department of Commerce, said that if a different site is necessary, the city should move quickly.
An environmental study for a new site would take about 30 days in order to receive KDOC approval. Galemore said a site would need to be set by Aug. 1.
“You’d have June and July to find another spot,” she said.
McReynolds complained that “Once again, we’re faced with an issue of having to make a decision one day before a grant deadline.”
“This application in no way sets the final site,” Tucker said. “It’s just an opportunity to apply for grants.”
However, if the city is awarded the grant, then later refuses the money, it would make it harder for Humboldt to qualify for future grants for up to the next five years, Galemore said.
McReynolds and Otis Crawford dissented in the 5-2 vote for the grant application. Council member Sam Murrow was absent.
Council members also approved an agreement with owners of Arrowood lane to purchase the half acre for the proposed building at a cost of $5,000. The transaction is contingent upon receiving the grant gunding, Tucker said.
If the grant is not approved now, the next application period is in October, but local match requirements increase to 50 percent.
