ANAHEIM : Agencies to Share $3.4-Million Grant

The police anti-gang task force, the Code Enforcement Department, the Park Department and the Anaheim Boys and Girls Club will be among the big winners this July when the city receives its $3.4-million federal Community Redevelopment Block Grant.

Under the plan, Code Enforcement will receive the largest single grant, $662,874, which will go for stepped-up efforts against dilapidated housing in the Central City, Citron, South Anaheim and Patrick Henry neighborhoods. Another $77,464 will be spent to prosecute code violators.

The anti-gang task force will receive $205,400, which will pay a portion of the salaries and benefits of its eight officers. The Park Department will receive five grants totaling $668,984 for improvements to its facilities.

The Boys and Girls Club will receive the largest grant given to a private group, $100,000. It will help pay for the group’s move this summer into a new downtown facility and may allow it to open in the morning instead of at 2 p.m.

Michael J. Sofia, the club’s director, said that because many Anaheim elementary schools are on a year-round schedule, there are always children on vacation who need a safe place for supervised play.

“There aren’t enough places for those kids to go, so they wind up doing the things we don’t want them to do because they have too much idle time,” Sofia said. “Maybe if we are open longer, we alleviate some of that.”

The City Council last week approved the allocation plan, which will be forwarded to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for final approval. The money will be spent between July 1 and June 30, 1994.

According to HUD, the block grant is to benefit low- and moderate-income residents, aid in the elimination of slums and blight and alleviate serious immediate threats to the community’s welfare. Last year, the city received about $2.5 million.

Keith Olesen, chairman of the committee that advised the council on the grant, said the committee specifically looked at programs that would help senior citizens and children because those two groups have been hurt by government budget cuts.

“As (city government) money gets tighter and tighter,” Olesen said, “block grant funds are going to play a more and more important role in this city.”

Some of the other activities being funded include the library’s bookmobile, with $33,250; Anaheim Interfaith Shelter, with $30,000, and the Fair Housing Council, with $66,230.