Hogansville’s City Council voted Monday to move forward with using a specific grant writer and to provide funds for a $1 million community development block grant, if the city receives it. 

The grant will be used to take over owner-occupied properties that are dilapidated and tear them down, so that new homes can be built.

“We will go into low and moderate income neighborhoods … and houses that meet requirements will get demolished and a new home will be built on the property,” Hogansville City Manager David Milliron said. “Basically, during a three to six-month period, they have to find housing elsewhere, then their existing house is demolished and a brand-new house is built. Then they move into the new house and are done with the program.” 

According to Milliron, it will cost the residents nothing except for a small application fee. The tenants have to find their own temporary housing during the build process, but after the build is done, the home belongs to the property owners. 

“This isn’t something new and is occurring all over Georgia,” Milliron said. “This is for people who cannot afford to have their home repaired or fix the severely dilapidated property. Some of these homes would be condemned, and we don’t want to put these people out of their homes.” 

Milliron said that the grant writers will come to the city, observe the housing stock and identify target areas. 

After the grant application is submitted, the council won’t know if they were approved for the loan until approximately August 2020.

The council also voted to have a joint use of power poles with Diverse Power, when the poles overlap on property. 

“There is an area being upgraded as part of an economic development initiative,” Milliron said. 

“Those polls are Diverse Power poles… if Hogansville is on a Diverse Power pole, Hogansville pays a fee and vice versa. This allows us to hang our hardware or wires on any Diverse pole and vice versa. More importantly, we did some of the numbers, and this saves the city [money].”

Milliron said that this saves the city from having to spend more money on replacing poles, when they can share with Diverse Power. 

“There are about 60 poles involved, but that number can switch up or down in time,” Milliron said. 

During Monday’s meeting the council also discussed the following: 

• Approved the motion to use Brown Pelican Consulting for the review of the Service Delivery Strategy (SDS).  The Georgia Service Delivery Act requires that cities and counties have a current, DCA-approved SDS plan which specifies county and city services, geographic service areas and sources of program funding. Brown Pelican Consulting will review all accounts and make recommendations to the council.

The Hogansville City Council will meet again at 7 p.m. on Dec. 17, at 400 East Main St in Hogansville.