• County approves agreement.

By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

The Columbus County DREAM Center is on its way to gaining building grant administration experience. One day in the near future, the non-profit hopes to provide first-time homeownership opportunities to county residents.

The Columbus County Board of Commissioners approved a second agreement with the agency recently.

Earlier this year, the DREAM Center asked commissioners to approve a $75,000 capacity building grant application for the N.C. Department of Commerce on its behalf. No matching funds were required but last Thursday’s agreement further clarified both parties’ roles.

The DREAM Center will use the funding to hire and train staff, and apply for additional housing development funds.

The center will administer the grant, which required an agreement between the two parties but the county agrees to submit the future Community Development Block Grant application on behalf of the organization within two years.

The projects will be required to take place in Columbus County and follow all compliance and regulatory requirements of the CDBG program.

Each party shall keep records, receipts and maintain books related to the grant.

The county will have access to and the right to inspect, copy, audit and examine documents related to the grant for a period of three years after the grant close-out.

According to documentation attached to the agreement, $46,190 of the grant will go to supplement additional staff in capacity-building activities.

Another $12,000 will be used to train existing staff and $9,310 will be used for travel expenses.

The remaining $7,500 or 10 percent of the total grant will cover administration costs.

One commissioner voted in opposition to the agreement.

Commissioner Bill Memory said after the meeting he voted in opposition to the agreement simply because the document was added on to the agenda at the last minute and given to commissioners just before the meeting.

“I didn’t have time to read it,” Memory said.

But that didn’t seem to bother the rest of the board that readily approved the document.