By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The City of Glendive appears prepared to let go of a Community Development Block Grant given to the city two years ago to help fund repairs to the now defunct Makoshika Estates senior living facility.
After discussing the matter at their meeting Wednesday, the city Finance, Utilities, Property and Recreation Committee recommended the city send back the $450,000 CDBG grant it was awarded by the state in 2014 for the Makoshika Estates project. The full city council will vote on the matter at the Sept. 20 meeting.
City Director of Operations Kevin Dorwart told the committee members that the Montana Department of Commerce recently sent a letter to the city asking that they make a decision about what they wanted to do with the grant award in the wake of Makoshika Estates closing for good earlier this year.
Dorwart said the city’s options at this point were essentially down to turning the award back to the state or finding another low-income housing project to use it on. Since the grant was a CDBG housing grant, it could only be used for another low-income housing project similar to Makoshika Estates.
However, Dorwart noted that neither of Makoshika Estates’ managing partners – Action for Eastern Montana and the Dawson County Economic Development Council – had any interest in trying to amend the grant award to use it on a different housing project, adding that “you can’t get much of a building for $450,000.”
“You could request to amend the award to do a different project with a different housing facility, but I don’t know who our partner would be,” Dorwart said.
When asked what the state’s opinion was, Dorwart added that turning the grant award back to the state was “probably what the Department of Commerce wants to see.”
Councilman Gerald Reichert asked if turning the award back could negatively impact the city’s ability to secure future CDBG grants, especially since the project it had been awarded for ended in failure.
Dorwart said it wouldn’t, noting that the city only acted as a pass through for the CDBG grant to the Makoshika Estates partners, since CDBG grants can only be awarded to municipal governments. Furthermore, he added that the city has not received any of the actual money yet and had nothing to do with Makoshika Estates’ failure.
“I would say no (the city will not be affected). There was no failure on the part of the city because the city did what we said we were going to do, which is being willing to help,” Dorwart said. “(The Department of Commerce) understands what happened. I think the city fulfilled what we said we would do.”
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.