Homer is Accepting Small Project Grant Applications

Matt Brooks: [00:00:00] Good morning. I’m Matt Brooks on X 1 0 1 Oh. Always classic and for another edition of happening in Homer. And well, we got a full house today. Not only do we have mayor of the Village of Homer Pat Clune, but we also have from the Cortland County, IDA, Ashley Riehlman. Good morning, both of you.

Mayor Clune: Morning, Matt.

Ashley Riehlman: Good morning.

Matt Brooks: We have a lot to talk about because the Homer, DRI, small projects fund well applications. You can, you can now apply for them until the. 15th of April. Ashley, can you tell me about this division of the DRI?

Ashley Riehlman: Good morning. So this is a small projects funds that has about $450,000 available to various projects in the target area of the DRI, application.

And you can apply, as Matt said, until April 15th.

Matt Brooks: And it’s a, we were, before we went on air, we were talking about how it’s a reimbursable grant. How does. How does that work?

Ashley Riehlman: Correct. So that means the project owner will be fronting the money and then it, they will be monitored and up to making sure the [00:01:00] scope of the project is correct, via their application, and then it will be reimbursed by the state after the project is complete.

You have 18 months to complete the project.

Matt Brooks: So to, to be clear, this is not something where you receive the money first. You have to, you have to foot the bill and then you’ll be reimbursed later on.

Ashley Riehlman: Correct. So you would have to have the secured funds. And a 25% match, available and ready. When you apply

Matt Brooks: now with, with this grant, what can the funds be used for?

I mean, if a business is interested in applying?

Ashley Riehlman: Yeah, absolutely. So, they can, this grant is available to use for interior and exterior building renovations as well as upper story residential improvements. Main focus. We would love to see a lot of mixed use, meaning commercial in the bottom and residential, in the upper floors, as well as permanent commercial equipment purchases and improvements, soft costs, which cover engineering, architecture and environmental services, and also public art installations.

Matt Brooks: And I’m gonna turn [00:02:00] over to Pat for a quick second here. ’cause I mean, you’ve been on for a long ride to the DRI project.

Mayor Clune: Just really excited to see it kick off. We’re gonna have a open house on the 3rd of March at 6:00 PM and the Center for the Arts has graciously, allowed us to use the community room for that.

So we will be having an open house at that time. That’s three March, 6:00 PM but this is a, a rolling application so you can apply. Anytime between now and then and start starting to get going.

Matt Brooks: You can do it before this interview’s even done. Yeah, you can just get it started. And, how would you go about, I mean, where do you find these applications?

Mayor Clune: So, the village, we will post the application on our website. We will have hard copies at the village office, so you can pick up and the, I’ll let Ashley, answer for her.

Ashley Riehlman: Ah, you can also find them at the Cortland County BDC. Which is Cortland County, www.cortlandbusiness.com. We could have hard [00:03:00] copies available as well.

Matt Brooks: And in addition to the, the open house coming up on March 3rd, if people are just seeking out more information, learning more about the grant, where would be a good resource?

Ashley Riehlman: You can give our office a call at, (607) 756-5005 or I would be happy to answer any emails at any time. And my email is Ashley, A-S-H-L-E-Y, at cortland business.com.

Matt Brooks: Well, I gotta thank you both for coming in this morning. Talk to me about this great opportunity for small business to get a little extra boost to hit their, hit their goals.

Mayor Clune: Great. Thank you very much, Matt.

Ashley Riehlman: Thank you for having us, Matt.

Matt Brooks: It’s been another edition of happening at Homer here on X 1 0 1.

Always classic. I’m Matt Brooks.