Grants Will Likely Stay Within City

City officials said this week that they will likely reject requests for federal community block grant funds that do not directly serve city residents.

Nonprofit agencies and several city departments are seeking funding for $3 million worth of programs, but the city only has $1.5 million to distribute, officials said.

“Obviously, the funding is very competitive,” said Mary Ellen Laster, the city’s grant manager. “We’re looking carefully at each request . . . and giving priority to nonprofits which are Orange-based and help Orange residents.”

Under those criteria, one request likely to be denied is that of the Heart-to-Heart program at Lampson Elementary School, officials said. Though Lampson is in the Orange Unified School District, its campus is in Garden Grove.

City Council members met Wednesday to give Laster their priorities before she presents the final list of recommended grants at a public hearing next month. They made it clear that city-based projects topped their list.

No one was receptive to a request from Lampson for $12,000 to help buy a modular building for Heart-to-Heart, which provides medical care and counseling services to low-income students on campus. Some school board members have proposed phasing out the program.

The school has also asked to carry over $12,000 it was granted last year to go toward the purchase of a $70,000 modular building.

“We discussed this last year,” Councilman Mike Spurgeon said. “My understanding is that a lot of the students benefiting from this one are from Garden Grove. I have a philosophical problem with that.”

Other council members said they do not approve of carry-over requests because scarce funds should be spent in the year they are granted.