(Estherville)– The Estherville City Council Monday evening heard an update on a new program that provides a financial incentive to homeowners looking to make improvements to the outside of their home. Councilman Dave Cihlar serves on a committee that administers the program. He says they provided assistance to 14 of 38 applications that were received…
“So we had to winnow through these and pick the ones that we felt we got the most bang for our bucks. I mean we had people that applied for replacing driveways and brick work on steps and other things, but what we really want is stuff that people see from the street, so re-siding, re-painting, that sort of thing.”
City Administrator Penny Clayton says overall it was a big success and she says they’ll be building upon a few things they’ve learned after the first year of the program…
“The grant program has been well received and we’ve learned some things along the way, some things we’re going to do better going forward in terms of the application, the application process.”
Clayton says for one one thing the eligibility guidelines will be made a little more specific. She adds it appears the city got a lot of bang for its buck with the program…
“Well if you look at it the estimated total cost of those projects totaled $190,872 with our commitment of 56,000 so we’re, you know, just about 20 percent of the total, or a little over 25 percent of the total investment. But I think it’s a great way to use those local option sales tax funds to better our community.”
The council voted Monday evening to continue the program, which is offered in conjunction with Excel Estherville.
