Home rehab program gets OK

State funding has been approved for Jay County’s owner-occupied rehabilitation program.

There are just a few loose ends to tie up before the county begins accepting applications.

Jay County Commissioners heard Monday from community coordinator Nate Kimball about the program. Kimball pointed out Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs sent an award letter Friday for the $1 million program intended to help low-income local residents make repairs to their homes. (According to the letter, county officials will receive an email in the coming weeks to sign a grant agreement.) Kimball explained the funds will be available to use 30 days after an agreement has been signed.

Offered as an incentive for communities allocating their American Rescue Plan Act dollars through OCRA’s Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program (HELP), the dollars — they come from Community Development Block Grant funds through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act — will be used to start a program for local residents to request financial aid toward home improvements such as replacing a roof, water heater or heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit, doing electrical work or making a home more accessible.

The county is contributing a match of approximately $90,000 in American Rescue Plan Act dollars toward the project, which will allot up to $25,000 per household. To be qualified, applicants must make at or below a salary threshold. Those amounts are as follows: one-person household, $44,200; two-person household, $50,500; three-person household, $56,800; four-person household, $63,100; five-person household, $68,150; six-person household, $73,200; seven-person household, $78,250; eight-person household, $83,300. The program will help a minimum of 40 households.

Kimball noted more than 80 residents have reached out to him expressing interest in applying. He explained he has not heard from consultant Mike Kleinpeter about how to handle work with contractors — there is some uncertainty about how to approach bonds — and he plans to follow up with Kleinpeter. Answering a question from commissioner Rex Journay, Kimball said there are “plenty of contractors” able to do the work, but he wants to make sure they are following the correct protocol.

Commissioner president Chad Aker gave Kimball the OK to share the application with the public as soon as bonding information is clarified. Kimball said he’ll plan to get the information before the next commissioners’ meeting, at which point he said the county could set a date to release it.

Kimball noted the application is relatively “self-explanatory,” asking for household members and their income as well as proof the applicant has paid taxes, owns the home, has homeowner’s insurance and a mortgage, if applicable.

Also Monday, Kimball mentioned Indiana’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program is accepting challenges from March 4 to April 3 to the Federal Communications Commission’s map of broadband access. He’s been working with Jay County Council vice president Cindy Bracy on the matter, pointing out the current map designates the Salamonia area in Jay County as “served,” or averaging at least 100 megabytes per second downloads and 20 megabytes per second uploads.

“The FCC map shows that is pretty well served, and with speaking with as many as I could out there, they very much disagree,” Kimball said.

The county has committed $3.9 million toward a project to bring nearly 400 miles of fiberoptic broadband to Jay County. (Hopes are to secure an additional $9.5 million through OCRA’s Next Level Connections grant or the BEAD program, with the remaining $6 million covered by service provider Mainstream Fiber Networks and private investor Searchlight Capital.) The project will target households or businesses designated as unserved or underserved per the FCC’s data.

Residents may visit broadbandmap.fcc.gov to ensure the information about broadband availability — location and speed — is correct for their address. The website also includes links to challenge that information. Speed tests may be conducted at connectingindiana.com. Each household would need to submit three challenges in order to prove their average upload and download speeds, said Kimball.