Bastrop, Tx–Faced with a request to boost a popular downtown building renovation grant program by $80,000 for the last seven months of the current fiscal year, the Bastrop City Council agreed Tuesday to increase allowed spending under that program by only $45,000.
The $80,000 budget adjustment was suggested by the Bastrop Economic Development Corp. board whose budget (and amendments of more than $10,000) must be blessed by the city council. Council Member Julie Hart urged the $45,000 limit, just enough to cover the cost of three projects previously endorsed by the BEDC board.
The council action will “stop stop (other) grants this year,” noted Joe Newman, BEDC president and CEO. Newman also said other major grant requests he’s aware of at this point don’t seen likely to mature until sometime in the 2010 budget year. The BEDC board is also at work on revising renovation grant guidelines and standards.
The extra $45,000 will be moved from another line item in the BEDC budget for “unforeseen projects” to its grant program.
In effect the council action approved paying grant requests for work undertaken at the Jimmie Ann Vaughan Real Estate building on Main Street, the former Bastrop Abstract offices on Chestnut Street and the proposed reconstruction of Scooter’s Coffee Shop on Chestnut Street.
Tags: Bastrop building renovation grants, Bastrop Economic Development Corp. budget, Bastrop Main Street area redevelopment