BUENA PARK : Block Grants Go to Building, Street Repairs

City officials have divvied up $1.1 million of federal community development block grant funds for 1995-96, with most of the money going to building and street rehabilitation.

City Council members agreed to spend $200,000 cleaning up private alleyways in the deteriorating Jackson-Fillmore area during a meeting Tuesday, but they strongly suggested that property owners should reimburse the city.

They also approved a $70,000 graffiti cleanup program, although leaders of nonprofit groups argued that money could be better spent by their organizations.

Recommendations for allocating the money were made in December by the city’s seven-member Citizens Advisory Committee, said May Hui, the city’s assistant director of development services.

Guidelines from the federal government stipulate that the money go to eliminate blight, assist those with low or moderate incomes or for emergency needs, Hui said.

The alleys of the Jackson-Fillmore area near Western Avenue won attention because a city task force of police and code enforcement officers have been trying to reduce the crime rate in the neighborhood, Hui said.

Councilman Donald L. Bone said that property owners there also need to take some responsibility.

“It just upsets me that we are pouring money down there when some homeowners don’t appear willing to help themselves,” he said.

Bone added that the $70,000 for graffiti removal could also have gone to the city’s social agencies, an idea roundly seconded by the director of the Boys and Girls Club and advocates of the Buena Park Coordinating Council, which helps the homeless.

But Bone said he wasn’t suggesting the council change the CDBG budget.

“I’m just saying it’s just a crime we have to spend money on things that would not be necessary if parents would control their children,” he said.