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Ottawa seeks housing rehabilitation grant · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Ottawa seeks housing rehabilitation grant Written by Marabeth Wilson. This
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  Speaker 1: article is being read by an automated voice brought to
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  Speaker 1: you by Everlett. Ottawa is applying for a housing rehabilitation
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  Speaker 1: grant to help low income homeowners repair their homes across
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  Speaker 1: the city. About fifteen residents attended a public hearing ahead
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  Speaker 1: of tuesday city council meeting to ask questions before the
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  Speaker 1: city submits its application by August twenty seventh. The grant
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  Speaker 1: will award about eight hundred thousand dollars to help ten
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  Speaker 1: to twelve homes, or roughly seventy thousand dollars per house,
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  Speaker 1: up from about sixty thousand dollars in previous rounds. Residents
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  Speaker 1: asked about income restrictions and housing guidelines for the program,
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  Speaker 1: which cover structural work, electrical and plumbing repairs, new appliances, flooring,
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  Speaker 1: and accessibility upgrades for owner occupied homes. Knowing that you
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  Speaker 1: can make a direct, immediate impact on people's lives, I
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  Speaker 1: think that is what makes this one so special. Mayor
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  Speaker 1: Robert Hasty said the city has won the grant twice before,
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  Speaker 1: receiving six hundred fifty thousand dollars each time. But those
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  Speaker 1: awards were limited to specific areas. The council voted to
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  Speaker 1: contribute twenty thousand dollars from its corporate fund toward the
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  Speaker 1: new application. Connie Buchanan, who is writing the application for
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  Speaker 1: the North Central Illinois Council of Governments, said that resident
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  Speaker 1: surveys will be used in it. The city should hear
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  Speaker 1: back within six to eight months, with rehabilitation work completed
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  Speaker 1: within twenty four months of approval. Commissioner Thomas G. Ganierre
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  Speaker 1: called it one of the city's best grants. We get
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  Speaker 1: grants for streets and water mainz, which affects everyone, he said,
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  Speaker 1: but this one affects our citizens most directly.