By JANET KORAN NOWLAN
A journalist for five years in western
Illinois, she is presently attending
Northwestern University Law School. She
is a 1971 graduate of Knox College
One circuit rider for several small towns
Small town grantsmanship: Roadblocks and opportunities MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in federal
and state grants have become available
in recent years for municipalities which
qualify, and the larger cities have fared
well because they possess the know-how
to unravel the red tape involved in
claiming the money. But small towns
without full-time officials and no experts in grantsmanship are at a disadvantage—and Illinois has 1,116 municipalities with less than 10,000 population. Now a legislator who lives on a farm
has taken an interest in the plight of
these towns. He is Rep. A. T.
McMaster (R.), who lives on a rural
route near Oneida (pop. 728) in Knox
County in western Illinois. McMaster
surveyed the problems of small towns in
his district, the 47th (Hancock, Henderson, Warren and McDonough counties
and parts of Henry and Knox counties)
in seeking grants and found that:
—Small towns and counties hear about programs, but often hear of them too late to apply, or hear of them only in time to use the expertise of a planner, which they can ill afford.
—Many communities which do meet the application deadlines for grants from the federal or state government often find that their applications lack adequate background information to receive the needed federal or state agency approval.
—Some local governments, in the process of applying for sewer grants or landfill permits, find that the rules of the "grant-game" change in midstream.
When the village of Kirkwood (pop. 817) hired a consulting engineer to draw up plans for a sewer project for the town, the engineers had to spend several months drawing up five separate sets of plans in order to meet changing guidelines.
—Other local government officials have complained that they have taken it upon themselves to apply for these grants, but when asking for information from the agency which is to make the grant, "We can't get a straight answer from anybody," complains Richard Burgland, chairman of the board of Knox County (pop. 61,280).
A 'circuit rider' to help
His bill creating a "hotline" (H.B. 2702) was placed on the House study calendar, but the accompanying appropriation of $50,000 for the hotline (H.B. 2701) passed the House but was tabled in the Senate on the recommendation of the Appropriations Committee.
This setback has not daunted McMaster. He is working with the Western Illinois Rural Development Project (an undertaking of the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service) and Stewart Schrodt of DLGA to establish a demonstration circuit rider program in some rural counties in western Illinois. The circuit rider will be a professional who can regularly assist rural communities on a circuit or traveling basis.
His proposals are not new and untried. Communities in other states faced
with similar problems have supported
the idea of a circuit rider to be shared by
several communities in one general
area. In Illinois, Associated Municipal
Consultants, a private firm, is providing circuit administrator services to six
municipalities in the Champaign Urbana area.
The circuit rider idea is based on the recognition that small towns are faced with the same kind of urban problems as larger cities, but because of a lack of money to hire a full-time overseer, the problems mainly get ignored or at best treated on a very superficial, after-the-fact basis. One circuit rider could provide adequate, day-to-day administrative aid to a group of small towns which jointly participate in the program. By hiring a joint administrator with city management background, a group of communities could have the kind of expertise they need, without bankrupting their city coffers. A hotline with the answers The hotline to DLGA, as McMaster envisions it, would involve a toll-free number with an increase in DLGA's Community Services Office staff to provide answers to local government questions. Each staff member (there would probably be a total of six) would |
|
374 / Illinois Issues / December 1975
be assigned an area of the state. Highest priority would be given to small towns with no staffs of their own. The hotline would answer questions at once if possible or guide local officials to the appropriate contact in federal or state agencies who could respond to a question, and generally provide liaison between local units and the federal and state governments. DLGA was created in 1969 for activities of this kind, but getting the job done seems to be a matter of funding—and obviously little towns are the low men on the political totem pole.
Creating the talent bank would involve identifying public officials, state university experts, etc., whose skills could be used by local officials in analyzing their problems. McMaster is sure that the know-how is here in Illinois, because the state's technical resources are vast. Making the connection is the trick.
He would also like to see the four legislators in each district (one senator, three representatives) earmark some of the money allowed for district office and research expenses ($12,000 apiece annually) for a joint legislative office to aid small local governments. This office could be staffed by a public administration specialist capable of helping with red tape problems.
Small towns 'jump in'
December 1975 / Illinois Issues / 375