LIBERTY - Let's wrap it up. That was the consensus of the Liberty Town Board following a presentation by Mark Blauer of Blauer Associates about the 2018 New York State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program's Small Cities grant application on Monday night.

Blauer, who has served as a grant writer for the Town of Liberty since 2008, recommended they apply for the grant to help finance Phase Nine of the White Sulphur Springs Water System Improvement Plan.

Phase Nine is currently slated as the second to last phase of the project. Six phases are already completed. The seventh phase is set to go to bid in mid-April, and funding for both the seventh and eighth phase has already been secured through previous CDBG grants.

Blauer has secured CDBG grants for the town in nine of the past 10 years, including one for the Loomis water district, two for the Loomis sewer district and six for the White Sulphur water district.

Any activity the town undertakes with CDBG funds must benefit a population that is primarily low-to-moderate-income (at least 51 percent of the population). There are two ways for towns to show that an area qualifies: census data or income surveys.

Census data doesn't correspond well with water and sewer districts, so in recent years, the town has had to use income surveys.

Blauer answered questions from the board about the possibility of using the grant to fund other projects.

“I can't think of anything else that would be as competitive,” Blauer said of the White Sulphur water project compared to other areas of need in the town. “I cannot make the [other] neighborhoods eligible due to the problem of having frankly too many seasonal properties.”

On income surveys, seasonal properties must be counted as non-low-to-moderate-income, which makes it difficult, if not impossible to qualify a neighborhood that is predominantly seasonal for a CDBG grant. This is why Blauer believed it was best to stick with the White Sulphur water district.

The public will be able to give their input on the topic next month, as the board scheduled a public hearing for April 16 at 6:50 p.m.

In other the news, the town will begin working on an Emergency Preparedness Plan in light of the recent slew of nor'easters. Council members Russell Reeves and Dean Farrand volunteered to take the lead in the effort.

A town slogan contest is also in the works.