Feds excuse city for misusing grant funds

Photo courtesy Google Maps

Three vacant buildings are scheduled to be demolished this spring.

City to demo vacant buildings, build parking lot

The city of Springfield is working to demolish three vacant buildings to make way for a parking lot.

Demolition of the buildings at 827, 833 and 843-845 N. Boonville Ave. is scheduled to be completed in May. Earth Savers Solutions LLC is conducting the work for $43,875, according to a news release.

The city’s Public Works Department will construct the 100-space parking lot following the completion of the demolition. The cost of the parking lot has not yet been determined, said city spokeswoman Cora Scott.

Purchased by the city over the past few years, the buildings are considered to be dangerous as they are in disrepair.

In the release, the city also announced plans to renovate the exterior of the nearby former Springfield Mill and Lumber building at 216 W. Central St.

Reasbeck Construction Inc. is on board for the work that’s slated to cost $711,427 and be completed in July. The building will be used as additional office space for the Springfield Police Department.

The federal government is not requiring the city of Springfield to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding that was doled out to ineligible participants of a tuition program.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration on Feb. 11 indicated the city’s work to remedy the situation has been accepted, according to a news release issued this morning.

“As such, the DOL/ETA is issuing this one-time allowance in the amount of $245,511.88 as a remedy to allow the city of Springfield to use grant funds to cover the cost of services,” said Brinda Ruggles, a federal grant officer, in a Feb. 11 letter to Sally Payne, Springfield’s interim director of the Department of Workforce Development. “DOL/ETA accepts city of Springfield’s evidence that it has taken the necessary corrective actions to ensure that moving forward, all participants enrolled in the program meet the eligibility criteria.”

The letter indicates the city will not be required to pay back the $245,512 sum, if local officials can prove they have the “appropriate receipts, invoices, case files and financial documents in place to account for” the amount.

A special audit conducted by BKD LLP on the $3 million DOL America’s Promise grant last year found several local participants in the tuition program were ineligible.

A second independent audit by RSM US LLP marked 59 of the 376 participants as ineligible. The cost related to the ineligible participants was $245,512.

The city was awarded the grant in December 2016. It was slated for use through 2020 to provide free education in high-demand fields at Ozarks Technical Community College. In November 2018, the grant known locally as Ozarks Promise was expanded to four health care program studies, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.