Neighborhood Task Force Funds Up in Air

Programs that improve playgrounds and provide clothes to the homeless will receive federal money awarded to the city, but the City Council held off a decision to fund expansion of a popular program that seeks to improve deteriorating neighborhoods.

The city received $1.1 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds, but council members declined to award the $150,000 the Neighborhood Improvement Task Force had requested.

The task force, created last year, sends police, fire, health and city code inspectors into deteriorating buildings and neighborhoods to force improvements.

Some of the grant money would be used to hire a full-time employee to work on the program and free up code enforcement officers for other complaints, city officials said. The position would expire when grant funds ran out.

The program is now funded with $60,000 in block grant funds awarded last year.

Council members were reluctant to create another municipal position for any reason because they still have not resolved how to fill a $2-million budget deficit projected for next year. They said the city would ultimately shoulder the cost of the new position if residents demanded it be kept after the federal money expires.

“The work the Neighborhood Task Force has done has been tremendous, but we sit here with budget concerns,” Councilman Donald L. Bone said.