ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The City of Liberal offers multiple building programs for citizens to use and recently, the Liberal City Commission got to hear updates on those programs.
Building & Code Enforcement Director Keith Bridenstine was on hand to give the updates, and he began by promising more frequent updates about the programs.
“At the commission’s last meeting, the city manager brought up how we need to bring these updates to the commission earlier, and going forward, we’re going to try and bring these programs before you every December so everything can be ready for the next year in January,” Bridenstine said. “These all have a few changes needing to be approved for this year, which is normal.”
The first program up for discussion was the First Time Homebuyer Grant.
“As you know, the First Time Home Buyer Grant is a program to assist low- and moderate-income individuals with the purchase of their first home,” Bridenstine said. “This program has assisted an average of 50 people per year over the past seven years. The program is $3,000 per approved applicant, and applicants must meet the income limit, which is 125 percent of median income, and they can’t have owned a home in the last three years. There aren’t really any changes needed with this one, it’s working really well right now as it is, so we’re really just asking for it to be continued. With the housing projects going on, I expect we’ll see many more first-time homebuyers looking for some assistance.”
Bridenstine then talked about the Home Repair Program.
“The Home Repair Program assists qualifying residents of the community in enhancing, weatherizing, or repairing homes to improve the quality of buildings in the city, and that is also a $3,000 grant. The program has helped an average of 58 residents per year over the past seven years,” Bridenstine said. “The program was originally for senior citizens and families with disabilities, and the last time we went over this program, we added very low-income homes. Changes recommended to the program for this year are to include qualifying veterans as recipients and include residents of the extraterritorial area. We decided to add the veterans in order to recognize their sacrifices for our country. I would also like to emphasize the 1-cent sales tax is received from sale of goods and not property taxes, and the residents of the extraterritorial area, which are governed by city building codes and zoning codes, contribute as much to the sales tax as residents within the city limits. In an effort to maintain the quality of buildings which will eventually be annexed into the city limits, it is our intent to offer them the same help.”
“One question I have is, with the removal of that three-mile radius ... if we put this here and it happens to pass in the Legislature, with us having that in there, will that invalidate anything?” Liberal Mayor Jose Lara asked.
“The state has to get rid of the three-mile zone, and if that passes, all of the three-mile zones will disappear,” City Counsel Lynn Koehn said. “That would mean the people in that zone wouldn’t qualify since there’s no extraterritorial zone. That talk is starting, but stuff like that takes quite a bit of time to gain any real traction, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with that.”
The next program up for discussion was the Paint The Town Program.
“As you all know, the Paint the Town Program allows homeowners who qualify to receive a paint voucher for the exterior beautification of homes within the city. They can then take that voucher to a store and redeem it for what they need,” Bridenstine said. “The program has helped an average of 47 people per year for the last seven years, which is amazing. We do require the taxes to be currently paid, and since there’s no income limit, anyone can apply for this program. However, they can’t have applied within the past five years. The main changes proposed to this program are increasing the amount per applicant from $350 to $500 (due to inflation) and adding vendors to give more options. For a long time, Sherwin Williams was the only vendor who partnered with us on this program, and we’ve added Mead Lumber and Westlake-Ace Hardware, which we’re really happy about.”
Bridenstine then continued his presentation with an update on the New Construction Incentive for Single-Family Homes.
“The New Construction Incentive for Single Family Homes is a program to incentivize property owners to build new homes within the city limits, and we actually have multiple single-family homes under construction right now,” Bridenstine said. “This program has been used toward an average of six new homes per year for the last seven years. We did just increase the incentive to $7,500 per new single-family home last year, and I feel like that’s a good number to stick with. The incentive gets paid after a certificate of occupancy, and it goes to the owner of the property, i.e. the person who is having the home built. Like the Single Family incentive, our New Construction Incentive for Multi-Family Homes is also used to encourage the building of new residences within the city, but this program has not been utilized enough to give an average per year. There is money available if someone does want to build multi-family housing, but it hasn’t been used very often. The New Construction Incentive for Multi-Family Homes is $5,000.”
Bridenstine also talked about the Water System Improvement Fee Waiver Program.
“The Water System Improvement Fee Waiver Program was designed to help seniors and families with disabilities offset increases in their water bills, and this is a program that’s been in place for multiple years now,” Bridenstine said. “How this program works is senior citizens can come in can apply for a waiver to get that extra $6.25 waived from their water bill. This is more of a housekeeping item, and the proposed changes to this program are to the age requirement and income requirement so they match up with the other senior programs. I’m not sure why those were different with this program, but they were, so those changes are the only major ones needed.”
Also among the updates was the Safe at Home Program.
“As the commission knows, the Safe at Home Program has offered free smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors to residents of the city to increase safety factors for citizens, and that’s been around for several years now,” Bridenstine said. “After the last tornado, there was discussion of how tornado sirens are around to let anyone outside know they should take shelter, but residents inside homes need to have their own system of warning. I did some research, and we could purchase NOAA radios for approximately the same costs as the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. With that in mind, I would like to add the offering of a free NOAA weather radio to households to this program. Adding the option should increase citizen safety.”
The final program the commission heard about was the Fence Program, the newest of the building programs.
“In speaking with Tara [Logan] at the Liberal Animal Shelter, this program would give homeowners a $3,000 grant to repair or rebuild fencing,” Bridenstine said. “Fences within the city pose a nuisance when in disrepair, and as we’ve all heard, stray dogs within the city are a commonly complained about nuisance. This proposed new grant would allow citizens funds to repair or install a fence of approved materials provided they adopt and register a dog from the Liberal Animal Shelter, do not exceed the income limits, and own and reside in a residence within the city, with taxes paid to current. The fencing requires sturdy material like chain-link or wood picket fencing, so people wouldn’t be able to get away with using just chicken wire or some material like that. Tara and I brainstormed this idea, and it not only encourages adoptions from the shelter and a reduction in stray animals, but also some property beautification/updates. Like the other home repair programs, we’d require the work to be done by a contractor so everyone is held accountable and we make sure the work actually gets done.”
After some brief discussion, the commission ultimately unanimously approved continuing the housing programs.
