CHAFFEE LANDS FIRST HOUSING BLOCK GRANT

CHAFFEE -- New Jersey native Vincenza Haney learned a long time ago that those who wait for things to happen usually get left behind.

"I was taught that unless your name is Rockefeller you probably won't get much help from anybody," said Haney, who helped push for and secure a first-ever Community Development Block Grant for Chaffee.

"If you ask questions and find out how things get done, good things can come your way," said Haney, a contractor whose husband, Virgil, is a native of Chaffee. The two met in New Jersey while serving in the military.

Haney learned the nuances of the Missouri Community Development Block Grant program when she attended a technical assistance seminar for minority and women contractors in Cape Girardeau last fall. The forum was part of Missouri's Minority and Women Business Enhancement Project. The goal of the project is to increase participation of minority and women businesses in the Community Development Block Grant program.

Haney, who owns Haney Contracting Co., filled out the application to obtain work on Cape Girardeau's Locust-Maple Neighborhood Rehabilitation project last year. She was the only woman to take advantage of the opportunity in this area.

The two-year project will involve rehabilitation of 70 homes. She won two of the first five bids awarded.

She shared her experience with the Chaffee City Council and helped stir local interest in applying for a neighborhood development block grant. The result was the first-ever Development Block Grant for Chaffee.

Eleven communities will receive nearly $3.4 million in 1995 funds for neighborhood development projects, which include housing rehabilitation and public improvements in targeted areas. Four other communities, including Cape Girardeau, will receive second-year funding for projects approved last year.

"This is a great day for the city of Chaffee," said Chaffee City Councilman Jerry Wolsey, whose Ward 1 neighborhood will benefit from the block grant awarded to Chaffee Thursday. "She (Haney) was at a lot of the council meetings when this was discussed.

"We've applied before but were turned down," Wolsey said. "This will upgrade a three-block area and become a boost for the entire city."

Haney said that Dan Bollinger started the paperwork to apply for a block grant two years ago. "He got it started, but then he moved to Mississippi and it seemed like it just kind of got delayed until it was too late to send in," she said.

Bollinger worked for the Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission in Malden, which helps write CDBG grants for Scott County.

The grant is worth $255,600 and will be spent on an area bound on the north by Dame Street, on the east by Second Street, on the south by Cook Avenue and on the west by Third Street.

Some 22 homes in Chaffee will be rehabilitated. Two dilapidated homes, abandoned for over a year, will be demolished.

The budget will consist of $255,600 in CDBG funds, $1,000 in local cash and $7,000 local in-kind money for a total of $263,000.

"Some people thought that they would have to pay the money back and were reluctant to apply for the grant," said Haney. "When I told them that they wouldn't have to, they seemed to want to go after it."

Haney said she plans to apply for work on the neighborhood development block grant when the final details are hammered out in the fall.

Steve Williams, housing assistance coordinator in Cape Girardeau, said he is still seeking applications from residents in the Locust-Maple neighborhood whose homes are in need of rehabilitation. Applicants must own and live in the house prior to making an application. There are also income limits, which are determined by family size.

This marks the sixth CDBG project Cape Girardeau has qualified for since 1982.

"We're still just in the first year of the two-year project," Williams said. A maximum of $14,000 can be spent on each house in the neighborhood. The area is bounded by Locust, Fort, Giboney, Ellis and Elm streets and Beaudean Lane.

The second phase of the Locust-Maple Neighborhood Community Development Block Grant program is worth $383,500.

Questions concerning the program or application procedures will be answered by Williams or Beckie Figliolo at the Division of Planning Services office at City Hall, 334-8326.