There may be fewer Hollister people tripping over cracks in sidewalks in the near future.
Council members Monday agreed to use $375,000 in available Community Development Block Grant funds – pending approval by the state – for an array of sidewalk repairs in areas where lower-income residents live. One of the requirements of the federal grant program administered by the state is for the project to affect low- or moderate-income residents.
Council members hope to use the $375,000 in available funds to get moving on a long list of dilapidated sidewalks. They said they would narrow a long citywide list – detailing reported areas where repairs are needed – to “census tract block groups” fitting the grant program criteria.
The city plans to put out a bid on all the work as one project, City Manager Bill Avera said Monday.
The plan with those grant dollars come a little more than a month after the city approved a sidewalk repair loan program. The council in late July approved allocating $100,000 toward the program in which residents can obtain deferred loans at a 2 percent interest rate for up to $10,000 each in order to fix sidewalks, repairs of which are the responsibility of homeowners.
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