LR wards clamor for U.S. funds

Garden, homeless shelter among city directors' options

Nelson weeds his garden box inside the Oak Forest Community Garden at 25th and South Monroe streets in Little Rock on Sunday.
Nelson weeds his garden box inside the Oak Forest Community Garden at 25th and South Monroe streets in Little Rock on Sunday.

— Push mowing the grass at the Oak Forest Community Garden is the bane of Debbie Sue Dillard Preston's existence, so the garden director asked Little Rock for money for a new riding mower, a stipend for her and supplies to start a farmer's market in the low-income neighborhood near the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

The $37,475 request was one of 38 applications from organizations seeking a share of $1.7 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funding that Little Rock expects to receive next year.

The requests included a tax-assistance program, signs for neighborhood associations, meals for seniors and street improvements in the College Station neighborhood. The grant money can be used for housing programs, infrastructure improvements and other community resources for low-income residents and is one of a few opportunities available for city funding.

Fourteen residents from each of the city's seven wards are responsible for sifting through the applications, ensuring community input on how the money should be spent.

Their job is made tougher because roughly $1.1 million of the anticipated 2010 funds are already committed to loan payments for the Kramer School residential project, as well as an annual $174,619 subsidy to St. Vincent's East Health Clinic, administrative costs and recurring city housing programs.

"We have a limited amount of money to spread around. We tried to do it fairly," said Rowena Hampton, a resident who led the review committee.

The group, which had a few disagreements over how much to fund requests such as the garden project, reached compromises and sent the Little Rock Board of Directors their recommendations.

City directors rarely alter the recommendations, but organizations had a chance Aug. 18 to make a case to the Board of Directors for money that wasn't included in the recommendations.

That's when Preston lost her $10,000 stipend and city directors cut a $10,000 tax-preparation program proposed by ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).

"This time there were some real things we were concerned about and a couple of projects that were chosen that we're setting up to have some problems," City Director Joan Adcock said.

The tax program duplicated free services the city already sponsored, city directors said before shifting the $10,000 to Meals on Wheels, which had been awarded $25,000 before the increase.

City directors were astonished by the $37,475 set for the community garden and said it was a hefty amount of money to give one garden when there are others in the city that operate on less. They cut the award by $10,000 and said even $27,000 was too much.

Preston knows the garden can survive on less - she took over the 14-year-old garden at 25th and Monroe streets after a grant for paid staff ran out and it has subsisted on $5 dues. Residents asked Preston, a longtime resident and Central High School graduate, to make the application, she said.

"I hadn't asked for any funds or anything because I felt as a garden we should be self-sustaining and if we're going to make it work we should make it work with nothing," she said.

The community plot is a gathering spot where Preston says a sometimes divided and diverse community can come together. It's time to invest in the garden, she said, and the after-school programs that can be done for the local children.

Plans call for teaching children how to garden and compost, building bird houses, starting a farmer's market and building a gazebo that can be rented out for events. Also, $3,000 would pay for a riding lawn mower so Preston doesn't have to beg the city to come mow the grounds, which is considered a city park. Usually, she or another volunteer ends up doing the job.

A further $10,000 of the request would have given Preston a stipend for managing the garden, something she does when she's not working part time at the library, and another $5,000 more to hire four teenagers for parttime help.

Preston said she'll continue to oversee the garden despite the cuts.

"We've done it without the money so I'm not afraid to be without the money," she said.

City directors shifted the$10,000 to fulfill a $51,100 request by Our House, a shelter for the working homeless.

The panel of residents had recommended $40,207 for Our House, but director Georgia Mjartan told city directors that the projects couldn't be done without the full amount. Our House plans to replace leaky windows and worn carpeting in a building that houses its day-care and education center as well as upgrade lighting at its Roosevelt Road parking lot where volunteers serving dinner park at night.

"At this point it's hard for us to raise those capital dollars," Mjartan said in an interview.

Representatives of D & A Doyne Family Limited Partnership also made a last-minute pitch for $50,000 that the citizen committee didn't recommended.

The southeast community of College Station is still rebuilding after a 1997 tornado. The Progressive League of College Station plans to spend the money on building a stretch of East 39th Street and Riddick Street, as well as putting in drainage ditches, to open up lots for residential development.

City Manager Bruce Moore told city directors that he thought College Station was a viable project. Hampton said the panel of residents had little information to go on and felt stronger about other projects.

"Why would you want to put in a street when there are no houses on the street," she said.

Hampton said she was kind of upset at the tinkering done after their hard work.

"It was almost like we sort of wasted our time doing it," she said, but added that she wants to stay involved in the process in the future.

Appeasing city directors, Moore said the College Station request could be funded by using $50,000 that had been designated for housing counseling.

A grant of $75,000 will pay for the World Changers, a program that brings teens into Little Rock for a week to help rebuild homes. And $25,000 is designated for repairs to the Martin Luther King Jr. Heritage Center, a city-owned community center.

The reworked recommendations will be published in a city action plan and put in libraries, alert centers and at City Hall for public comment. City directors will vote on a comprehensive grant application some time in November before submitting the requests to the federal government. Little Rock won't receive the funds until next year.

Arkansas, Pages 9, 11 on 08/31/2009

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