CAIRO — Two months after the Cairo Town Board approved the dispersal of $61,860 in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant funding, Town Councilman Tim Powers wants the board to amend the resolution it passed on March 7.
During the board’s meeting Monday, Powers presented an amended resolution that he contends would correct the public record on the board’s decision to grant $50,000 to the Cairo Development Foundation and $5,930 apiece to Mountainview Enterprises and Emmy Cross as part of the HUD Residential Rehabilitation Grant.
As Powers began to read his amended resolution on Monday night, Watts interjected.
“We’ve talked about this every meeting so far, Tim,” Watts said to Powers.
“We’re going to until I get a vote on it,” Powers replied. “So I prepared a resolution that pretty much sums up what actually happened.”
Powers then proceeded to read his amended resolution: “Be it resolved that the funds shall be dispersed by an act of the Cairo Town Board majority, setting aside the terms and conditions of the grant and the recommendations of the residential specialist, Delaware Engineering.”
Powers then requested a roll call vote at Monday’s meeting, with Powers voting yes on the measure and the rest of the board abstaining.
“I have no further confidence in this town board as it is,” Powers said after the amended resolution failed to pass.
Following Monday’s meeting, Watts said that legal action has been taken against the town as a result of the HUD funding.
“He keeps bringing it up,” Watts said, referring to Powers. “Every month he wants everybody here to hear the same thing and we keep going over this every month with him. It’s a legal situation, too, now because every one of the parties is now suing us. We can’t talk about it, so I don’t know why he keeps bringing it up.”
Watts said that as far as he was concerned, the issue should be closed.
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Watts said. “He (Powers) wasn’t at the meeting. Even if he was at the meeting, it still wouldn’t have gone his direction, so he’d still be unhappy. He didn’t ask to put it into our agenda (on Monday) so we didn’t know about it this morning.”
Powers said he will wait to see the minutes from the May 2 meeting before deciding if he will present his amended resolution to the board again.
“Because I brought it up twice, I want to see how the minutes reflect it,” Powers said on Wednesday. “If it actually comes out in the minutes when (Cairo Clerk) Kayla (McAlister) is done with them. If it does come out, then at least the public record has been corrected and that’s my main concern.”
In the original March 7 resolution, Delaware Engineering had been authorized by the town to act as a residential specialist for the HUD funding so the Albany firm could determine the appropriateness of the various applications the town received for the money.
“Whereas, Delaware Engineering has completed its review and assessment of the applications including feasibility studies submitted and determination of costs of necessary renovations under each such application,” resolution number 2022-087 states.
Powers was not in attendance at the March 7 meeting where Town Supervisor Jason Watts and town council members Debra Bogins, Michael Flaherty and MaryJo Cords voted 4-0 to approve the dispersal of the HUD funding.
“I had a planned hospital procedure and I called Jason a week before and I told him that I wasn’t going to be at that meeting,” Powers said Wednesday. “He said that we wouldn’t address any big issues at that meeting, knowing that I wouldn’t be there. Then they pulled this out of their hat. I think the whole deal with the grant would have gone through fine if they stayed with Delaware Engineering’s recommendations. But at the last minute, they changed the numbers on it and went back to the 2019 resolution.”
During Monday’s meeting, Powers wanted an amended resolution entered into the public record. Powers previously introduced the amended resolution at the board’s workshop meeting on April 20 and introduced the resolution again Tuesday after it was not brought up for a vote at the previous meeting.
“Delaware Engineering made their recommendations to this board and the numbers were all changed, but the resolution itself wasn’t,” he said.
Powers said that under Delaware Engineering’s recommendation to the board, the Cairo Development Foundation would have received $22,680 in HUD funding, Emmy Cross would have received $18,576 and $17,118 would have gone to Mountainview Enterprises.
The board subsequently decided to grant $50,000 to the Cairo Development Foundation and an equal share of the remainder to the two other applicants.
In August 2019, the Cairo Town Board approved $50,000 in funding for the Cairo Development Foundation to fund the renovations of two residential apartments at 467 Main St. The resolution was subsequently withdrawn and the issue was not resolved for three more years. The original HUD grant dates back to 1998, with the town collecting $11,860 in interest on the original $50,000 grant in the past 24 years.