Glendale invites residents to talk infrastructure funds at meeting

Residents can make suggestions on how to spend $14.25 million in federal funding for infrastructure improvements, primarily in south Glendale, over the next five years during a meeting slated for the end of the month.

The meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. on Sept. 24 in the cafeteria at Mann Elementary School, 501 E. Acacia Ave., is set up to solicit ideas from residents within the vicinity on how to allocate money toward projects such as park improvements, street and lighting repairs as well as creating housing for low-income families, said Senior Community Development Supervisor Moises Carrillo.

Allocations for this year have gone toward sprucing up the aesthetics of Maple Park and its playground, which will have a grand reopening on Sept. 9, Carrillo said.

Funds can also be spent on housing rehabilitation, he said.

The $14.25 million to be doled out annually through 2020 is a combination of federal grants from the Community Development Block Grant program, HOME investment Partnerships program and Emergency Solutions Grants program.

The proposed amount is also is significantly less than the previous five-year period.

From 2010 to 2014, the government provided nearly $30 million to Glendale, but several cuts were made within the past year, Carrillo said.

There’s still enough money to get work done, but future projects will have to be analyzed more closely, he said.

“I think it’s enough to address our priority concerns,” Carrillo said. “We have to be more specific as to what the priorities are going to be for those limited funds.”

Suggestions from the community may be added into the final version of the city’s five-year Consolidated Plan and Strategy, which will head to the Glendale City Council for consideration in April.

If approved, projects could start receiving funding as early as next July, Carrillo said.

He added there would be additional meetings between now and next spring with local stakeholder groups representing the homeless and low-income families on how the federal funding should be spent for them.

For those who can’t attend the meeting, Carrillo said the city is putting together an online survey that will be posted on the community service parks department’s website.