Federal grants have now been secured to fund improvements to historic commercial structures in three New Mexico cities. The funding is coming through the expansive Main Street America program and is going directly to the state’s New Mexico Main Street effort. As so defined, grant funding of up to $25,000 will specifically go for façade improvement to buildings in downtown Deming, Gallup, and Silver City. The funding is particularly significant for New Mexico because New Mexico Main Street is one of only four programs in the country participating in the launching of what is being called the Main Street Façade Improvement Grant Program. In a statement, Alicia Keyes, New Mexico’s Economic Development Secretary, noted that the restoration of historic buildings within the defined Main Street districts in all three cities will help those communities “reach the goal of full economic recovery.” The Main Street Façade Improvement Grant Program was launched earlier this year with the support of a nearly $750,000 grant from the National Park Service’s Historic Revitalization Subgrant Program. Ongoing funding for the program comes from federal oil lease revenues in the Outer Continental Shelf. According to the parameters of the street façade effort, funding can be directed for everything from awning and window repairs, storefront rehabilitation, lighting restoration, and signage, among other things. Targeting buildings that mostly went up during the late 1800s and early 20th century, the façade improvement effort is designed to bring back either the grandeur or clean simplistic look of the buildings’ original design. Many of the structures in question underwent upgrades in the 1970s and 80s that saw the addition of modern facades and awnings now thought to have obscured the original grace of the buildings. In a COVID-19 economy, recipients of the façade improvement grant emphasized the redevelopment potential of the funding. “This will contribute so much more than aesthetic upgrades," said Kara Smith, the director of the Gallup Main Street Arts & Cultural District. Continued Smith: “It will help drive economic development while ensuring that we take care of our greatest assets in the process.” By Garry Boulard
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A soccer field in the Denver neighborhood of West Colfax may soon see construction of a new headquarters for the always-busy Boys & Girls Club of Metro Denver. The nonprofit organization wants to build the new proposed two-story structure near its Arthur E. Johnson Boys & Girls Club in the 3300 block of W. 16th Avenue in a neighborhood made up mostly of multi-story apartment complexes. By so doing, it will bring together both the administrative and activities segments of the organization in an area already designated as a transportation corridor. In its mission, the group coordinates nearly two dozen individual local clubs and programs, as well as hosting a sleep-away camp held every summer. According to city documents, the group says the new structure will additionally house “co-working and training space for community-serving organizations to connect, collaborate, and create positive impact.” In order to begin construction on the site, the club is requesting a rezoning of the property, a request that has already won the approval of the city’s Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. The matter is now on its way to the Denver City Council for a scheduled July 20 hearing. The Denver club, like other chapters of the national Boys & Girls Club, offers a wide variety of voluntary after-school recreational activities and educational programs for children ranging from six to eighteen years of age. By Garry Boulard Within the last month, the Environmental Protection Agency has incrementally announced the awarding of a total of nearly $66 million in grant funding for brownfields cleanup efforts across the country. A brownfield is so defined as any property containing a hazardous site, contaminant or pollutant, hindering the possibility for the site’s redevelopment. The agency has now just announced it is awarding a $600,000 brownfields assessment grant to Bernalillo County. As planned, the assessments will focus on several South Valley contaminated sites in the commercial corridors of Bridge Boulevard, Rio Boulevard, and Broadway Boulevard. In May, the EPA awarded $600,000 in assessment grant funding to the El Paso Downtown Management District for contamination assessment efforts in an area of the city containing 85 acres of vacant property. According to an EPA press release, the El Paso district’s “potential priority sites include three vacant retail buildings.” It is estimated that there are currently more than 450,000 such brownfield sites in the U.S. Launched in 1995, the agency’s Brownfields Program offers a number of different grant opportunities tailored to a community’s needs, including assessment grants for brownfields inventories; cleanup grants to fund actual cleanup activity; and area-wide planning grants allowing communities to develop brownfields implementation strategies. More than 150 communities have been selected in the past few weeks to receive brownfields grants. The grants particularly target economically disadvantaged and under-served communities trying to clean up abandoned contaminated sites for their future redevelopment. Over the course of the last 25 years, the EPA has provided some $1.6 billion in similar blight property assessment and cleanup grants By Garry Boulard The decision to add Tucson’s famous Sunshine Mile to the National Register of Historic Places may have the effect of spurring renovation projects in the area. That designation was announced by the National Park Service, and it means that any renovation work within the district could be eligible for a tax credit of up to 20 percent. The Sunshine Mile is regarded by architects and preservationists as a vibrant example of mid-20th century modern architecture with dozens of mostly one-story structures built in the immediate years following World War II. Officially called East Broadway Boulevard, the Sunshine Mile runs from North Euclid Avenue to North County Club Road serving as Tucson’s main east-west corridor. The author Tim Hull in his 2016 book Moon Arizona & The Grand Canyon describes the Sunshine Mile as a place of “20th century car-culture and the clean lines and optimistic space-age details of classic American architecture.” Because a number of the structures running along the Sunshine Mile are thought to be in need of restoration, city leaders are hoping that the availability of Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives will increase the likelihood of such projects. In a statement, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero hailed the National Register of Historic Places designation and said her offices were committed to ensuring that “these architecturally significant buildings and their facades are protected and adaptively reused.” By Garry Boulard Plans are in the works for an upgrade project at the always-busy Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station on the northwest side of Santa Fe. The City of Santa Fe has issued a Request for Proposals for the replacement of the geo-synthetic lining around the evaporation pool at the facility. The project will additionally include the removal of an existing fence and building of a galvanized steel chain link fence with line and corner posts. According to city documents, the liner, which was originally installed some 24 years ago, has been damaged through the years by weather conditions, sunlight, and normal wear and tear. The $215,000 project will additionally include the replacement of above-ground piping and removal of overlying vegetation, pumice, cobbles, and residual sludge, along with the pumping out of about one foot of water at the bottom of the constructed wetlands. Materials removed from the wetlands must be then hauled to the Caja del Rio Landfill, some 8 miles to the south of the Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station. Open seven days a week during daytime hours, the recycling and transfer station is run by the Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency and processes the disposal of trash, recycling, green waste, electronic products waste, and household hazardous waste. The RFP has a submission deadline of June 25. By Garry Boulard Roughly $9.5 billion a year in federal funds over the next five years will be allocated to help the National Park Service pay for a wide variety of park facility needs according to legislation just passed by the U.S. Senate. The Great American Outdoors Act was approved in the upper chamber on a bipartisan vote of 73 to 24, and, if passed in the House and signed into law by President Trump, will particularly target funding for repairing of park bathrooms and visitors centers. Other projects to be funded include the upgrading of countless campgrounds, trails, and pothole-filled roads. “This is an economic and jobs package as much as it is a conservation package,” Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, one of the principle sponsors of the legislation, said upon its passage. New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich also expressed his support for the legislation, noting that the many visitors who annually visit the country’s national parks may not be able to fully enjoy the experience if “the bathrooms don’t work, if the trails and campgrounds aren’t open, or if the roads are in disrepair.” Added Heinrich: “These places that we all cherish deserve better.” The legislation also mandates that the Land and Water Conservation Fund be financed to the tune of $900 million. That fund, established by Congress in 1964, invests revenue from offshore oil and gas leasing for park conservation and protection. The Great Outdoors Act has won the support of both conservation and environmental groups, not to mention the endorsement of Theodore Roosevelt IV, the great grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt. President Roosevelt launched the U.S. Forest Service system during his administration more than a century ago. The legislation is now on its way to the House where it is expected to easily pass. President Trump has indicated that he will sign the legislation into law as soon as it arrives on his desk. By Garry Boulard The City of Denver’s Parks and Recreation Department has issued a Request for Proposals for irrigation work at a popular northeast public park. Located at 7401 E. 26th Avenue, the Fred N. Thomas Park, comprising a full city block in the Stapleton section of the city, was named in honor of a late and legendary African-American educator in Denver. After a lengthy career in both education and civil rights, Thomas died in 1980. With baseball, football, and soccer fields, as well as tennis and basketball courts, the park remains an always-busy place. Now city officials, while keeping the facility open for its many amenities, are hoping to see work begin on the construction of a new irrigation system serving the park. The work will also include the installation of new pump equipment and pump enclosures as well as sodding, seeding, and possible tree replacement. Some sidewalk, curb, and gutter demolition will additionally make up a part of the project, with a new six-foot wide replacement sidewalk to be built on 26th Avenue and a detached sidewalk along Syracuse Street, which runs parallel with the Thomas park. The RFP submission deadline for the estimated $1.3 million project is July 30. By Garry Boulard el paso baseball field to get upgrades through unique city and school district joint project6/17/2020 Members of the El Paso City Council have given their unanimous approval to a proposal that will see the El Paso Independent School District providing facility and site improvements to a much-used baseball field on the northeast side of the city. The work will take place at the Washington Park Hugo Meyer Baseball Field, located at 200 Washington Street, and will include the building of new concession stands and press box with adjacent restrooms, as well as new bleachers, dugouts, and bullpen. Additional work will see the field’s irrigation system replaced, and the installation of new LED lighting. In return for its investment, EPISD’s Jefferson High School, located only some half a dozen blocks from the field, will have full access to the city-owned space for baseball team practices, games, and tournaments. “It’s really great when we are working with our other government agencies,” City Representative Alexsandra Anello said of the inter-local joint use agreement signed by both EPISD and the City of El Paso. The agreement has a 30-year life, with the option of a 10-year renewal. The document also allows for the field to be accessed by the city when it is not being used by the high school. By Garry Boulard Confronting economic losses as a result of the COVID-19 shutdown, many small businesses are turning to the practice of crowdfunding in order to stay afloat. Long a practice in the business world, the concept of many investors providing support to start or help maintain a business through smaller donations has grown dramatically through the use of the Internet. According to sources, more than $34 billion in support was raised worldwide for various projects through crowdfunding in just the year 2015 alone. Now the federal Securities and Exchange Commission has just announced that it is loosening restrictions on the use of crowdfunding for small businesses. By so doing, funds for those businesses can be made available in a more timely manner. According to an SEC press release, the new policy will “expedite the offering processes for eligible companies by providing relief from certain rules with respect to the timing of a company’s offering and the financial statements required.” “There’s significant capital out there,” Nancy Kerrigan, chief executive officer with the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, said of crowdfunding platforms as a source of support for small businesses. “It’s just that it has to be unlocked by investors seeing good ideas in the marketplace or solid ideas, and that’s what the platforms are doing,” Kerrigan said in an interview with the Washington Examiner magazine. According to one study, more than 13,000 individual crowdfunding efforts have been undertaken for small businesses through the site Go Fund Me since the COVID-19 outbreak. The various campaigns have proved successful enough for some state governments to become involved: the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has just announced that it will provide up to $500,000 in matching grants for small business crowdfunding. In New York, a new company offering health juices and smoothies called Pure Green has just completed a round of crowdfunding raising $1 million in support, with some investors putting up as little as $100. Crowdfunding sites, including Indiegogo, Patreon, and Kickstarter, require a 5 percent fee for all funds raised. Other sites ask for a certain percentage per pledged transaction. By Garry Boulard Members of the Tempe City Council have given their approval to putting on this November’s ballot a bond question that, if passed, will fund everything from street improvements to park and wastewater treatment facility upgrades. The ballot proposal for the big $349 million bond will be divided into five parts, the first of which will ask $134 million for maintaining and improving the city’s wastewater treatment plants, as well as the city’s water distribution and storage infrastructure. Some $74 million will go for street and storm drain improvements, including the upgrading of bridges, pedestrian access trails, bike paths, streets and avenues, as well as the improvement of traffic control systems throughout the city. Exactly $34 million will target what is being called “public safety projects” that include improving the city’s hardware and software systems. Park and community services improvements, including the upgrading of park recreation infrastructure and landscaping, as well as new lighting, is set for $45 million. The last part of the ballot proposal is asking $62 million for municipal infrastructure preservation, including everything from the rehabilitation of existing city buildings and landscape to the replacement of inefficient HVAC systems in many of those same structures. Although no surveys have yet been released regarding potential voter support for the bond, voters in the city in 2016 overwhelmingly gave their approval to a similar $254 million bond package. By Garry Boulard |
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