UBRA board of directors hears terse arguments from Main Street grant applicants

By GEORGE CUSTER/for The Herald  —  The Uptown Business & Revitalization Association held their monthly board of directors meeting on Monday with several important items on the agenda.

The most important topic up for discussion was the upcoming submission to the Oregon Main Street (OMS) program for a sizable grant that would support the Uptown District’s revitalization.

The Oregon Main Street “…provide(s) support to organizations who are ready to roll-up their sleeves; develop a vision for how they want their downtown to look, feel, and function; and then attract the people and financial resources to bring about the change they want to see happen. We accomplish this by providing training and technical assistance to communities participating in the Main Street Track of the Oregon Main Street Network, and by access to the Oregon Main Street Revitalization Grant which funds building improvement projects that spur economic development for all Network communities (available once per biennium in odd years).”

After Mick Garvin convened the 5 p.m. meeting, the previous minutes and finance report were approved. Eugene Cathcart, UBRA president, attended via Zoom.

The OMS had announced the grant opportunity to all of the Main Street members back in August of 2024. Soon thereafter, UBRA convened a committee to develop criteria for submission. The maximum grant amount awarded could be up to $400,000. Since the time the word went out to UBRA’s members, three applications have been submitted.

The committee reviewed the three applications and recommended one of the three to be selected as UBRA’s nomination for submission.

Representatives of all three applications were in attendance. Travis Carlson represented the proposal put forward by Jennifer Lloyd, who could not make the meeting. Lloyd’s project had been selected as the winning proposal. Dirk “Poncho” Tarman, attended as did the team of Keith Robinson and Jacob Keltner. Both parties had submitted applications as well.

Robinson and Tarman both voiced frustrations concerning the selection process as well as the criteria used to determine the outcome. Both parties made note of the fact that each had, or would, arranged for legal services to assist in the administration of the grant had it been awarded to them. Grant administration can create a significant burden on an awardee if not done properly. UBRA, because of their lack of capacity to administer such a large grant, acted only as the conduit to those applying.

The local RAIN catalyst Jude Anderson, having extensive experience in economic development, had devised the point system of grading the applications. Points were awarded based on the strength of each criterium and then tallied up to arrive at the total points awarded to each application.

Kevin Gobelman, who was a member the selection committee, stated that there were only a few points that separated the three entries.

Upon hearing the concerns of the other two applicants, there appeared to be consensus among the board members in attendance that the arguments brought forward were deemed to have sufficient validity to reexamine the selection process, though with no promise of altering the previous decision.

UBRA board member Lynda Kamerrer ran the Zoom portion of the meeting. She told The Herald that Main Street Grants could possibly awarded to more than one application in a given community. However, she was told by the Oregon Main Street executive director that it was highly unlikely and could jeopardize the community’s efforts.