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Grant Opportunities for Sewer Infrastructure: <br />39 <br />The Task Force explored several grant opportunities to fund the sewer improvement for <br />the Rogers Road Neighborhood. The Task Force was furnished a list of possible grant <br />- opportunities from RENA including the following: <br />Community Development Block Grants <br />Department of Health and -Human Services <br />Department of Housing and Urban Development <br />Environmental Protection Agency <br />Federal Highway Funds <br />Clean Water Trust Fund <br />Bernard Allen Fund <br />These are mostly federal grant opportunities which are administered through the State. <br />After reviewing all of the grant opportunities the Task Force was able to identify only two <br />possible grants to fund sewer infrastructure, a Community Development Block Grant or <br />a Clean Water Trust Fund Grant. <br />Community Development Block Grant <br />Orange County has to access Community Development -Block Grant (CDBG) dollars <br />through the State of North Carolina. That is a competitive process. Within the CDBG <br />grant program, there is a category known as "Infrastructure Program ". In that category, <br />funding is available up to $1 million to communities that have infrastructure needs. The <br />operative word is "need ". To access those funds, because they are competitive, any <br />application will have to be able to demonstrate need. Another issue is that the State <br />has focused on water projects, which it considers to be a priority over sewer. Where it <br />does fund sewer projects there has to be a demonstrated need for connection to a <br />public sewer system. Someone would have to document that need in the community. <br />The State primarily looks to the local environmental health department to make that <br />assessment. When talking about sewer projects, normally there is some documentation <br />of a major problem such as with failing septic systems. <br />To qualify to compete for CDBG funds, a letter of interest will be due in early February <br />2013. The letter must include the engineering report and project documentation <br />defining the needs of the community. That letter, along with a list of committed local <br />government funding sources to complete the project, are necessary before submitting <br />the CDBG application. The amount of local government matching funds required varies <br />from county to county. The CDBG process evaluates the local government's perceived <br />F4 <br />