VISTA: Vista council to hand out grants

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
Social service groups line up for cash | Monday, March 24, 2008 5:36 PM PDT ∞

VISTA -- Groups that bring food to the elderly, offer homeless people a place to sleep or provide health care to the poor are among those hoping to get a slice of $176,000 in federal grant money the Vista City Council is set to divvy up this week.

At its 5:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, the council is expected to tentatively OK grants of between $4,000 and $25,000 for 16 different community groups. The grants are based on recommendations from an advisory panel that were released last week.

Council members could change the recommendations, but officials said that in previous years they have generally approved the advisory group's suggestions.

The $176,000 is part of the city's $1.17 million allotment of federal Community Development Block Grant funds. Cities and counties use the money to help social service programs, as well as to pay off redevelopment debt, fund capital improvements and remove blight.

On Tuesday, the council will conduct a public hearing on the grants and vote on them, then give the public 30 days to review the decisions. The council is set to give final approval on the grants in May.

City Councilman Bob Campbell said that it was getting increasingly difficult for the city to divide up the money because federal funding had decreased each of the last five years.

"(These) funds are highly sought after," he said. "We can't fund as many projects as we'd like."

The city's allocation this year is roughly $46,000 less --- about 4 percent -- than it received in 2007.

Most of the groups that asked for a share of the funding are repeat customers, ranging from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Vista, to St. Francis Catholic Services to the Vista Community Clinic.

Under the advisory group's recommendations, only one group -- the city of Vista's Out & About senior transportation program -- would receive the exact amount it requested: $25,000. That was also the largest recommended allocation.

Meanwhile, funding for some groups is increasing over last year. Operation HOPE, one of four fixed-location winter homeless shelters in North County, received roughly $14,000 in 2007. This year, it's poised to get $20,000.

Jean Cole, the shelter's chief executive officer, said Friday the recommended award was "very exciting."

"That's good news," she said. "The council has been very supportive of us."

A nonprofit social work group called From the Inside Out, which tries to help at-risk teens stay in school, was recommended to get $8,000 this year after getting shut out in 2007.

Other groups are in line to get less than they hoped.

The Boys & Girls Club Gangbusters program was recommended to get $4,000 this year after receiving $8,000 in 2007. And the Vista Community Clinic, which got $30,500 in 2007 to help pay for its operations, was recommended to get $24,000 this year.

Barbara Mannino, the clinic's executive director, said she was still happy.

"Any money we can get is great," she said.

The city's advisory panel also recommended that the clinic receive $58,000 in economic development grant money for their proposed Tri-City Hospital offices because they are expected to create new jobs.

For the remainder of the $1.17 million in federal funds, the city is poised to spend roughly $513,000 to help pay off debt from the Vista Village project and the Vista Transit Center.

Another $260,000 has been recommended to pay for economic development projects such as Vista Community Clinic's plan to build new offices at Tri-City Hospital; and $225,000 would be spent on the city's administrative costs.

-- Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 901-4067 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.

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