LAKE FOREST : City to Take Over Fund Administration

The task of administering the city’s Community Development Block Grant funding was taken over from the county by the City Council on Tuesday.

Beginning in 1994, Lake Forest will get between $250,000 and $300,000 annually from the federal program, which pays for neighborhood revitalization projects such as street repair and house painting for qualified residents.

“I think we would be foolish not to take over the block grant program,” Mayor Ann Van Haun said. “As a city we will have control” over block grant funds “instead of having to compete for funding spread out over the county as a whole.”

The proposal passed 3 to 1, with Councilwoman Marcia Rudolph voting against Lake Forest’s controlling the funds.

For many Orange County cities, the program is run by the county. Cities and nonprofit agencies must apply to the county and compete to have their projects funded from the block grants.

Cities with populations of more than 50,000 can receive block grant funds directly from the federal government.

However, the county receives federal government funds in three-year cycles.

Lake Forest, which incorporated in December of 1991, was not eligible to administer its own program until this year.

The city has about 58,000 residents.