Brookfield trustees have scheduled a public meeting for 10 a.m. March 30 to gather citizen input on the kinds of improvements that should be proposed in a grant application.
The meeting will be held at SixFourteen Church, 1382 Broadway Ave.
The meeting follows the determination that the target area, Masury south and east of Route 62, qualifies for federal Community Development Block Grant money by having more than 51 percent of residents who earn low or moderate incomes.
The trustees and a handful of volunteers went door to door conducting income surveys of households, and found that more than 60 percent of residents met the income guidelines. The work turned out to be for naught, as the state changed the way an area is determined to have low-and moderate-income households, said Julie Green, Trumbull County grants manager. The determination is now made with Census data, she said.
“The entire service area is located within a qualified (Census) block group, so that is really good news,” Green said in an email March 11 to township officials. “The not-so-good news is that much time and effort on your part was spent conducting the income survey, and now it is not needed; however, we had no idea that the state would be releasing new data this week, nor that the area would also qualify by Census numbers, so we will continue on.”
Residents are asked to fill out questionnaires specifying their priorities to revitalize the neighborhood, should the grant be awarded. The kinds of projects that could be undertaken include demolition of dilapidated residential structures; drainage, sanitary sewer, sidewalk, street and water line improvements; and building of a park or playground.
It’s past time the Trustees work on a project for housing for Senior Citizens.