Menu
City commission to open housing improvement bids
A few local homes will be getting a facelift as a result of grant money awarded to the city of Fort Scott in January.
The homes, located at 2 N. Little, 116 E. Pine, and 113 N. Broadway, are the first three to be renovated with money coming from a $400,000 Kansas Small Cities Community Development Block Grant.
Laura Moore, grant administrator with the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Committee, said the three projects are expected to go out for bid Tuesday. A walk-through of the homes for contractors interested in bidding has been scheduled for Nov. 3.
She said she hopes to open bids on Nov. 16 and award the bid that evening at the Fort Scott City Commission meeting.
Fort Scott Director of Economic Development Dale Bunn said about $20,000 has been allocated for each home in hopes of improving 15-20 homes in the northeast portion of town.
The city accepted applications from homeowners and tenants from a six-block area within Barbee Street on the west, Caldwell Street on the east, Pine Street on the north and Wall Street on the south. Bunn said the application deadline has passed, however, if there are not enough homes that meet the qualifications, there may be a "second application opportunity."
Other communities have seen a "ripple effect" from similar projects in which other homes in the area have seen improvements to neighborhood homes and make improvements to their own, Bunn said.
"They have found that people in the neighborhood who may not qualify for the program, they also will bring the standard of their houses up," he said. "It has a ripple effect throughout that neighborhood that may move through a larger section of the city and provide additional pride and enthusiasm for the homeowners in the whole area to bring the quality of their housing up."
Bunn, who has been involved in many community improvement projects, said this project has been the most inspiring.
"It was touching to hear, from the people involved in filling out the application, about how this would make such a difference in their life," he said.
Fort Scott was one of three Kansas communities to be awarded the funding through the Kansas Department of Commerce.
The money awarded is the maximum amount available to the city, and is being used to help low- and moderate- income homeowners make improvements to their homes in the northeastern section of Fort Scott.