Portsmouth has nearly $65 million in grant-funded projects on the table, and now the city is considering creating a new full-time position to help manage it all.
At Monday’s City Manager’s Conference, city officials are expected to consider whether to send a request to Portsmouth City Council to create a Community Development Assistant Director position.
According to a memo from City Manager Sam Sutherland, the Portsmouth Community Development Director is asking for the appropriations needed to fund a second position within the department.
The memo says the city’s current grant awards warrant another employee to help with grant administration, management, future grant requests, and other tasks as needed.
The proposed position would be full-time.
The list of current projects includes major riverfront work, brownfield cleanup, road work, boat ramp improvements, tree grant funding, water treatment plant work, and floodwall-related funding.
Projects listed in the memo include:
ARC Generators
CDBG Floodwall — $250,000
Mural/Stars — $150,000
Water Treatment Plant — $17.5 million
Coles Boulevard — $5 million
ODNR Tree Grant — $300,000
Roy Rogers Esplanade — $200,000
Brownfield Remediation — $400,000
CFP Chillicothe Street — $1.5 million
CFP Walnut Street — $1.5 million
ODNR Boat Ramp — $1.7 million
ARC POWER Boat Ramp — $1.5 million
ARC Riverfront Road — $495,000
ACGP Riverfront — $34.2 million
The total listed in the memo is $64,695,000.
That is a lot of money to track.
Grant-funded projects often come with reporting rules, deadlines, matching requirements, paperwork, documentation, reimbursement requests, compliance standards, and future planning. Falling behind can cost a city money or slow down projects.
City Council’s options are to authorize legislation, modify the request, take no action, or reject it.
If the measure is approved at the City Manager’s Conference, it would then go before Portsmouth City Council at a regular meeting for consideration.
In plain English: Portsmouth has been awarded so much grant money that the city says it may need another person just to help manage the work.
