Benton Harbor City Commissioners have voted to repurpose some previously allocated federal dollars to help prepare the city to receive certain state and federal grants for parks projects.
At a meeting this week, commissioners were told the $25,000 in APRA funds were originally earmarked for the Canal Commons project, but Harbor Shores never billed the city for the work it was to do with those dollars. Therefore, commissioners were asked to allocate the funds instead to pay for appraisals on three pieces of land near Harbor Shores to correct a mistake made back in 2012.
That’s when the former emergency manager sold a parcel on Eighth Street, known as the Dialysis Center Property. It was designated as a mitigation parcel related to the Harbor Shores development back in 2004, but because the emergency manager sold it, Benton Harbor was in violation of the Harbor Shores DNR agreement and became ineligible for certain grants. Mayor Marcus Muhammad said Monday that appraising and acquiring the three nearby parcels could fix the error.
“What we’re doing today is righting a wrong and correcting it, because if we do not, then that hamstrings our ability to get grants from the DNR,” Muhammad said.
Muhammad said the city has already missed out on grants because of this issue. Still, Commissioner Ethel Clark-Griffin didn’t like the sound of reallocating the ARPA funds.
“We hear that this money was never used for the purpose intended, and now we want to use it for something else,” Clark-Griffin said. “And I would think, since we need money, if that’s the case, then we should be keeping it to keep it.”
In the end, commissioners approved using the ARPA dollars to appraise the parcels near Riverside Avenue, Klock Road, and East Main. Commissioners Clark-Griffin and Emma Kinnard both voted against the move.
