Last modified: Thursday, April 17, 2008 1:57 AM EDT ARA, city continue to wrangle over cash BY GEORGE W. RHODES / SUN CHRONICLE STAFF ATTLEBORO - While the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has barred the city from using its Community Development Block Grant money for economic development projects, city officials continue to battle over the cash. City administration officials and the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority made promises to work together, but it was clear at a public hearing Tuesday that divisions are still deep between the two sides which are fighting tooth and nail over $175,000 in the grant money. Whether anyone will be able to use the cash remains to be seen, but in the meantime, both sides resorted to hyperbole to make their points. ARA attorney Ed Casey quoted the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to warn that years of hard work could be destroyed if the ARA doesn't get the $175,000 that is controlled by the city's community development office. "To build may have to be the slow, laborious tasks of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day," he said, quoting Churchill. Community Development Director Sal Pina, who wants to retain the money for city purposes, said residents are in dire need. "Those are eloquent words, but there are people starving in Attleboro today," he said. Mayor Kevin Dumas said the city needs to keep the cash to energize efforts to fill vacant store fronts, improve facades and create more affordable housing now, as opposed to the ARA's long term effort to do the same things. "We have real issues that demand our immediate attention," he said. While Dumas is opposed the ARA request, he said his support for the ARA and its projects - reuse of the Swank building, construction of the industrial business park and downtown revitalization - is solid. "My administration is committed to see these projects through to fruition," he said. But ARA Vice Chairman Max Volterra wasn't buying. "Make no mistake about it: The priorities have changed," Volterra said. "When we say we need the money, we're not kidding. We don't have the resources to do the job." But Dumas said the city has given enough to the ARA including $683,000 in block grant money in four years, a $2.4 million loan for the downtown project and $2.4 million in block grant money for collateral to support a loan for the Swank project. ARA officials say the community development office has hundreds of thousands of dollars in other housing funds such as Home Funds, Section 8 and McKinney Homeless Assistance cash available to accomplish some of its goals. The $463,490 in block grant money must by law commit 15 percent, or $69,524, to social services. Another 20 percent, or $92,698, goes to salaries in the community development office for Pina and a staff member. The rest, $301,268, can be used for affordable housing, economic development and a small business loan pool. The social service money and the administration money are not in dispute. The ARA request would come from the remainder, and would pay half its salary expense and about 30 percent of its operating budget. The lack of administration money in the $42 million in grants and loans the ARA has acquired, along with delays in land sales at the industrial business park and high costs for land there because of disputed city assessments has forced the agency to seek block grant money to keep the park and the Swank rehab on track, officials said.