I am starting a new business in my home. May I apply for a grant?
The Office of Community and Rural Affairs manages a federal grant program called the Community Development Block Grant program. These grants are made only to units of local government such as small cities, towns and rural counties. Grant funds for small businesses may be available from other sources including, but not limited to the Indiana Small Business Development program.
I am employed by a construction contractor that is currently building a school in my home county. This contractor is not paying Davis-Bacon wages to his employees. Where can I file a complaint?
Construction projects for which any part of the funding comes from federal tax dollars are subject to the Davis-Bacon Act which requires the payment of prevailing wages in the area as defined by the U.S. Department of Labor. If funding for the project is from state or local funds, Davis-Bacon does not apply. Those projects are subject to the Common Construction Wages as set by the Indiana Department of Labor. To receive wage rates for this type of project, contact IDOL at 317.232.2655.
My community has an open CDBG grant, but we really need to apply for another. Does the first one have to be closed out before we can submit another application?
A county may have two open grants and still submit an application for a third grant; cities and towns may have one open grant and apply for a second. The open grants must be under construction, which is verified by submission of the Notice To Start Construction to OCRA, (or in the case of planning grants, the contract must have been awarded for development of the plan). The open grants may not have any overdue reports or may not have any monitoring findings for the grantee to be eligible to submit another application.
I work for a not-for-profit organization that was a subrecipient for a CDBG grant awarded to our county in 1997. The county continues to ask us to submit Semi-Annual Subrecipient reports twice a year, even though the grant was closed out nine years ago. How long must we continue to submit semi-annual reports? We thought that requirement was met after five years.
The five-year reporting period for subrecipients begins when a Certificate of Completion has been issued to the Grantee by OCRA. That document is generated after OCRA receives a copy of the grantee's A-133 audit report with no findings or with findings resolved. That audit is performed by the State Board of Accounts and a copy is sent to the community. It is the community's responsibility to forward a copy of that report to OCRA and they are instructed to do so in correspondence from OCRA after the monitoring has been completed and the grant moved to close-out. You should communicate with the grantee on your project to get this issue resolved.
My community was told that OCRA has two funding rounds per year for CDBG projects. Last week, a tornado destroyed our water tower. Do we have to wait six months to submit an application for a replacement water tower or could we apply sooner?
When a community has an urgent need, and is able to demonstrate that the need is a threat to health and human safety, is of recent origin, that the local unit of government is unable to pay for or finance the replacement of the facility and that there are no other sources of funding available, an application for CDBG funds may be submitted at any time. Determination of eligibility will be determined by the Office of Community and Rural Affairs. For direction and technical assistance, contact OCRA's Community Liaison for your area.