MEDINA – A proposed change in the state budgeting process is likely to leave Medina County with no new Community Development Block Grant funds this year to complete small capital improvement projects.

The federal funds are distributed by the Ohio Development Services Agency which is planning to award the local grants to counties and cities every two years instead of annually, according to Rob Henwood, the director of Planning Services who manages the CDBG program for county commissioners.

Henwood said the switch to biennial funding is part of the state budget proposed by Gov. John Kasich and currently under review by the Ohio Legislature.

Last year, Medina County was awarded $238,000 in CDBG funds and will presumably be awarded about twice that amount in 2018, but nothing this year. The $238,000 the county received last year was allocated for a homeowner repair program in Wadsworth, paving walkways in Montville’s Cobblestone Park and improving handicapped access at a park behind the village hall in Chippewa Lake. Though announced last year, the construction of those projects is actually taking place this year.

Henwood said the state would like to see CDBG money allocated to bigger and more impactful projects. That is part of the reasoning for making the CDBG grants available less frequently but in bigger amounts.

Henwood said another reason for making CDBG grants available every two years instead of annually is probably to mask an anticipated reduction in funding. Henwood said the amount the county is offered in 2018 is expected to be about 10 percent less than double the 2016 award.

The change to biennial funding also means the county will not be approving any applications this year. It also means the county will lose the $35,000 in CDBG funds it allocates to help fund transit programs next year and every other year after that.

Henwood said he typically receives more applications than he can afford to fund each year. Projects rejected one year typically reapply for funding the following year. That won’t be the case this year.

“We usually send letters out about this time each year asking for applications for funding,” Henwood said. “This year, we’ll be sending letters explaining the changes and saying we won’t be taking any applications.”

The CDBG program provides annual grants on a formula basis to cities and counties to develop viable communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment, and by expanding economic opportunities.

The CDBG program can fund a broad range of activities, including economic development projects, streets, water supply, drainage and sanitary sewer improvements, park acquisition and improvements, demolition of unsafe structures, rehabilitation of housing and neighborhood facilities. The activities must be designed to primarily benefit low- and moderate- income people, aid in the prevention or elimination of blight, or meet an urgent need of a community.

The Community Development Block Grant is one of the longest-running programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

CDBG, like other block grant programs, differ from categorical grants made for specific purposes in that they are subject to less federal oversight and are largely used at the discretion of the state and local governments.