After a 3-0 vote during Thursday’s action session, Lyon County commissioners will sign an action plan to pursue involvement in the Lyon County Neighborhood Stabilization Program Action Plan.
Sam Seeley, Lyon County flood plain manager and zoning director, told commissioners earlier this month that HUD’s new Neighborhood Stabilization Program could help the county. According to HUD’s Web site, the program “will provide emergency assistance to state and local governments to acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties that otherwise become sources of abandonment and blight within their communities.”
Seeley said the Kansas Department of Commerce’s rural-development division, in partnership with the Kansas Housing Resource Corp., home division, will implement the program on a state level.
Seeley said Thursday morning that the action plan needs to be turned in by today if the county wanted to continue with the program. Seeley said the action plan is non-binding and the county can still back out if needed.
“It doesn’t commit us but it does show that we are willing to commit,” Seeley said. “If something doesn’t work out we can say no ...”
Seeley said the money for the program will have to go to the county level first before it can be dispersed. Lyon County is not looking at a lot of properties to be purchased and rehabilitated because there isn’t a lot of money for the county.
“... It’s just to keep the properties from being blighted or going downhill,” he said. “Why not put them into the hands of somebody who wants a home?”