Commissioners back resident-owned mobile park's grant requests

Lincoln County Commissioners lent their support to two grant applications this week that could assist a Libby-area affordable housing community with infrastructure improvements.

Commissioners signed on as sponsors for a competitive American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) grant request and a Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) application during a Dec. 15 meeting. Both grants could help Libby Creek Community, a resident-owned mobile home park, with water and sewer projects.

Danielle Maiden, cooperative housing specialist for NeighborWorks Montana, said an engineer estimated the projects could cost up to $1.8 million.

“I’m really hopeful that’s going to be significantly less than that once they get actual bids from contractors but moving forward I’m going to use that … number when applying for grants,” she said.

If both grant applications were successful, Maiden anticipated Libby Creek Community might still come up $300,000 short. She asked commissioners if the county might be able to put noncompetitive ARPA funds towards the project. Along with closing the cost gap, a noncompetitive allocation could help bolster the community’s grant applications, according to Maiden.

Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2) noted the county had committed roughly half of an ARPA minimum allocation grant. While there were other projects seeking funding, he suspected the county would have some money left over.

In addition to the ARPA funds and the CDBG grant, Maiden said she would seek allocations through the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s Renewable Resource Grant and Loan Program and the Montana Coal Endowment Program. Both additional grants have application deadlines later in 2022.

Bennett recommended Maiden return in a couple months if she needed the county to support the two additional grants.

The application for the competitive ARPA application is due Jan. 14. Maiden suspected the CDBG grant request would be due in February or March.

Should Libby Creek Community fail to follow the guidelines of the grants, the community, not the county, would be liable for paying back the funds.