By James Coulter
The City of Lake Wales is hoping to procure a permanent generator at city hall through funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but they will first need to conduct a public hearing to authorize the submission of the grant application.
At their workshop on Wed. Nov. 30, Lake Wales city commissioners reviewed an item on their consent agenda for next week’s meeting. The item pertained to a grant application for FEMA funding for a permanent generator at city hall.
The application was submitted on Dec. 2023 for $153,273. The City had since been notified on June 2024 that the application had been approved with up to $160,553 in funding. These funds include $109,481 from federal shares, $43,791 in local shares, and $7,280 in sub-recipient management costs.
“We were recently informed that Florida Commerce intends to award the city the Local Share through a Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR),” wrote Sara Irvine, Special Project Administrator. “Hence, the reason for holding a Public Hearing.”
If approved, the City will schedule a public hearing to take citizen input, approve the submission of the grant application, authorize the Mayor to execute the grant application(s) for submission, and authorize the Mayor to execute the FEMA HMGP Sub-Recipient Agreement.
City Manager James Slaton stated that the generator would be an asset for the city in case of an emergency.
“This is another major improvement,” he said. “Hurricanes are one thing, but throughout the year, we will lose power in this building.”
The consent agenda item will be considered by the city commissioners at their next regular meeting, scheduled for Tues. Nov. 5 at Lake Wales City Hall, located at 201 W Central Ave, Lake Wales, FL 33853.
