The City of Urbana plans to use leftover $750,000 of federal funds

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) - The City of Urbana has $750,000 leftover from federal funds to use before April 30, 2023.

The funds are from the federal Community Development Block Grant funding (CDBG). If the funds are not used by April 30th, the city will lose them and it could risk them receiving a smaller amount in the future.

“What we’re faced with today is we have received our regular allocation of CDBG funding and there was some unspent funds that rolled over into this year.” explained Mayor of Urbana, Diane Marlin.

The federal Community Development Block Grant program provides annual grants to cities in low to moderate income neighborhoods.

The funds haven't been used yet because the city also received pandemic-related funds from the federal government. They prioritized using that money first and getting it out to residents that needed it. In result of that, this money is leftover.

“During COVID they were prioritizing getting all of the emergency funds out the door and that’s just not a simple matter of writing checks to people because you have to follow all of the rules and regulations contributed to that so it’s a time-consuming process that required a great deal of extra work.” said Marlin.

Marlin plans to direct these funds to improving these under-served communities in Urbana, while the city plans to vote on possibly including some medical items needed for the fire department as well.