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ICABARI~US COUNTYI <br /> NORTH CAROLINA <br /> <br />To: Cabarms County Board of Commissioners <br /> <br />From: Kelly Sifford, AICP <br /> <br />Date: February 10, 2003 <br /> <br />Re: Fishertown project <br /> <br />I have contacted Liz Wolfe at the State of North Carolina Department of Commerce's <br />Division of Community Assistance regarding the hiring process for Infrastructure grants. <br />She stated that if we chose the administrator of the grant without using the Competitive <br />Negotiation process that the County would be fully responsible for the administrator's <br />fee. This fee is typically 10% or more of the grant. The grant allows for up to 10% <br />administration. This is how we have paid administration fees in the past. There are <br />actually two steps to the process. We can issue a RFP or hire a consultant to write the <br />grant and then we are required to do a separate RFP for administration of the grant, if it is <br />our intent to use the administration portion of the grant to pay for the administrative <br />services. <br /> <br />There has been a change in the landscape for consultants. As the markets of consulting <br />finns have gotten tighter due to government cutbacks, many finns have reduced their <br />prices. We may get several offers to write the grants for free; however, we would be <br />under no obligation to hire that finn for the administration of the grant. The benefit to the <br />consultant would be that the finn who writes a successful grant may get extra points <br />during the evaluation of applicants for the administration of the grant due to knowledge <br />of the area and the project. <br /> <br />I have prepared an RFP that I would like to make available tomorrow for the Fishertown <br />project. The RFP is designed to allow the consultants to determine what grant or <br />combination of grants that would most likely be funded for this particular area and <br />prepare those applications. We need to proceed quickly with this process to ensure that, <br />if we choose to apply for CDBG Infrastructure grants, we have time to do the application <br />and the required heatings. These grants are no longer competitive, thus we must prepare <br />the project before application to the state and then we will be funded, as the money <br />becomes available. <br /> <br />Currently, the state CDBG program is not funded. The Congress adjourned without <br />adopting the budget; therefore, the local state program is operating on a partial allocation. <br /> <br /> Planning Services Division <br /> <br />P. O. Box 707 · Concord, NC 28026-0707 ,, (704) 788-8141 <br /> <br /> <br />