By Staff
NILES – The Niles City Council will hear comments from the public Monday evening regarding the closeout of the block grant for the city's downtown revitalization project.
In order to begin closing out the joint downtown redevelopment project, the council approved a public hearing date on Jan. 22 for the public to address the project. The project, which was required to create 39 new jobs on Niles' Main Street to avoid having to repay the state loan for the downtown's street revitalization, recently surpassed its job goal when the new Chemical Bank branch opened on Jan. 8, providing 12 new jobs and pushing the total to 45 jobs.
Juan Ganum, community development director for the City of Niles, said the hearing is a required part of the state program.
Ganum added that although the 12 new jobs did not meet the requirement that 51 percent of new jobs be for low to moderate income workers, he is hopeful the fact the city exceeded the goal by six jobs will offset not meeting the stated requirement.
"We believe that we have satisfied the state job creation requirements," Ganum said.
The hearing will take place at 7:20 p.m. at the city meeting room at the Niles City Fire Hall.