by Rachel Hunter
The Town of Gouverneur announced at its March 12 meeting that it is still accepting applications for housing rehabilitation projects.
The Town of Gouverneur was recently awarded $400,000 in funding through the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) to assist approximately 10 eligible single-family homes located in the town. The program is intended to provide assistance to income-eligible homeowners to perform rehabilitation activities that are necessary to help alleviate substandard conditions in their homes. The Town of Gouverneur's Housing Rehabilitation Program has received funding through HUD Small Cities Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) dollars, administered through the NYS Office of Community Renewal to provide assistance to homeowners for rehabilitation activities necessary to help alleviate substandard conditions in their homes. Only properties that are determined to be substandard are eligible to be assisted under this program.
For more info, visit www.gouverneurny.com, call 315-287-2340, or stop by the Town of Gouverneur Offices Building, 1227 US Highway 11, Gouverneur.
Town of Gouverneur Supervisor Dave Spilman, Jr. raised the topic during Old Business at the March 12 meeting of the Town of Gouverneur Council. Those present also included Town of Gouverneur Deputy Supervisor Jay Bowhall, Town of Gouverneur Councilman Curran Wade, Town of Gouverneur Councilwoman Lory Whitton, and Town of Gouverneur Councilman William Infield, among the others in attendance at the public meeting.
“We are accepting applications,” Supervisor Spilman said. “We have 11 or so, and we’ll still accept more.” Supervisor Spilman is seeking applications to be submitted to the Town of Gouverneur by May 1, 2024, so that they can move ahead with the process of selecting applicants and getting the projects out to bid.
Town of Gouverneur Councilwoman Lory Whitton asked: “Who decides who is eligible?”
Town of Gouverneur Code Enforcement Officer Rick Wood said the following: “The applications go to the Development Authority of the North Country (DANC). DANC gives us a qualifying list. Then I go out and check the houses, and make sure that none of them are certain type of house. Like, this program doesn’t cover manufactured homes. So we would have to eliminate those. Then I send a list back, they go through and approve them, and then myself and one of the DANC workers come out, and we go through the house. We evaluate them, and then we turn around and write out a work order, and then submit it to the owners. They accept what we’ve got on their plate. We send it back to DANC, and they put it out in the bid. It’s bid out. Usually, they put it out for a two-week period, and then we take the contractors around the beginning of the second week to show them exactly what we are doing. And then the bids are finalized at that point.”
Councilwoman Whitton then asked: “Is it a bid per location or all in one?” CEO Wood said, “Each house is a separate bid. We shoot for 10, depending on cost and materials, and labor prices.” Supervisor Spilman together with Town of Gouverneur Bookkeeper Diane Kelley announced that nine homes were done last year, and 11 were done the year before. “The cost last year was pretty drastic pricing-wise,” CEO Wood said. “There was a major increase on all new materials. But that is the process. It’s lengthy, but the contractors are in and out in usually two weeks once they start, and they have 45 days to be finished. We have on average four contractors that bid on them. It’s a whole gamut of process – everything from roof to windows to siding to insulation to sometimes cosmetics that need to be done on the interiors. Sometimes there are ADA applications, and all that kind of stuff.”
Town Councilman William Infield asked: “Each contractor can sub out each other thing though, right?”
“No,” CEO Wood said. “That’s the difference. Unless it is an approved subcontractor. There may be a heating contractor that comes in that does everything except for a roof. He can sub that roof out, but he can’t sub half the project out. He has to do the majority of the work on the contract. Something that he doesn’t specialize in… they can sub out to somebody, but DANC has to approve it.”
“Does he have to divulge that way ahead of time?” Councilman Infield asked.
“Oh yes,” CEO Wood said. “To give you the process, when we go out and look, we start with a list and we work down through. There’s needs and wants. A lot of people want a lot of stuff, but they need more than what they want. So we go down through and try to give them what they need. If your roof is needed, we want to give you a roof because if you don’t have a roof, then the rest of the house is no good anyways. So we try to go even to the point of evaluating the roof to see if it has 5 or 10 years left, so we know exactly what we are giving you when we are all done… Most of the general contractors they can do everything from roof, siding, plumbing. Electrical is usually subbed out. That’s a caveat from somebody who has a specialty in that. And then after they do some of that electrical, it has to be inspected anyways…”
Supervisor Spilman then asked the following: “Each project is evaluated for lead?”
CEO Wood said, “Each project is tested for lead and asbestos now. It does not come out of the funds. It’s like the lead pipe project that we had here. It was a separate fund for them through the federal government. Asbestos is basically the same thing. They go in and they caveat that out, and then your funds are still there for your projects.”
Supervisor Spilman then said, “Before it was just in the area in which you were working, that you looked for asbestos.” “Now it is everything,” said CEO Wood in confirmation. “We get the project, and then they go through whatever is in the project. If it happens to fall under one of those things, that is when we decide what we are doing also. The St. Lawrence County Program hasn’t run into a lot of it. But we have run into a lot of it here. There’s a lot of lead and asbestos in this area, because more of the older houses are getting renovated.”
“That makes sense,” Councilwoman Whitton said.
“As long as it is not coming out of our budget,” Supervisor Spilman said. “That’s good.”
There was no further discussion.
All Town of Gouverneur homeowners with substandard single-family homes are urged to submit a housing rehabilitation application. For more info, visit www.gouverneurny.com, call 315-287-2340, or stop by the Town of Gouverneur Offices Building, 1227 US Highway 11, Gouverneur.
The Town of Gouverneur Council will hold its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 9, 6 p.m., at the Town of Gouverneur Offices Building, 1227 US Highway 11, Gouverneur.