By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — The city of Plymouth is hoping that a problem with a private partnership can be worked out quickly to the benefit of all.
The Plymouth Common Council passed a resolution approving a corrective action plan in response to a finding by the state board of accounts in a federal audit. The finding was in regard to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant of around $390,000 that was given to the Solomon Group using the city as their agent. The grant went towards infrastructure in a subdivision designed to build low cost housing for low income families.

Part of the requirement for that grant was that there were to be 62 beneficiaries from the project by June of 2008. As of last night’s Council meeting there were 11 beneficiaries of the project. Not meeting the requirement brought a comment on an audit from the State Board of Accounts.
Concerns over limited oversight and monitoring of the project led to a meeting between the Solomon Group, the city and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs to address how the requirements were to be met.
“I would like to say that a comment on a federal audit is a very serious thing,” said Plymouth Clerk-Treasurer Toni Hutchings addressing the Council during the meeting. “You don’t know how long it’s going to be before it goes away and it is a very serious thing for the city.”
Serious enough to make the city ineligible for future Community Block Development Grants from the federal government, and, according to Hutchings could have an affect on any bond issue the city might wish to make for a project.
“We’re still very optimistic that we can work something out,” said Plymouth City Attorney Nelson Chipman after the meeting. “I think we can figure out a way to creatively make that housing available to low income buyers and meet the terms of the grant.”
The city action was in response to the state board of accounts finding and is the first step for the city in working toward a solution.
The resolution states that the city will adopt a policy of not participating in grants where the completion criteria is solely in the hands of a third party. The city will also work with the Solomon Group on an ongoing basis to see that action is taken towards completion of the grant requirements. It also states that they will research legal remedies if grant compliance is not met.
Ryan Stutzman of the Solomon Group was in attendance to speak to the Council on the matter, stating that he felt that the Group could meet amended requirements for completion in spite of “…pretty tremendous struggles…” in the economic marketplace.
Stutzman stated that along with the well documented struggles in the housing and economic markets over the past year, his group was still in place to complete the grant requirements until the federal government did away with all down payment programs for low income home buyers.
OCRA will make a decision by June 30 in the matter.