The City of McFarland has been awarded a $1.9 million grant from the State of California through the Department of Housing and Community Development Block Grant Program. The $1.9 million will be used for the following purposes:
1) Improvements to 2nd Street that will include partial street reconstruction, the installation of missing sidewalk and American With Disabilities Act (ADA) curb ramps, the installation of street lights and street trees.
2) Funding for the Code Enforcement Division to perform property inspections, abate dangerous structures, violation tracking software and increased training.
3) The purchase of a graffiti removal truck that will allow the City to remove graffiti within 24 hours. This truck will allow the City to match the color of the surface that has been graffiti so that when completed no evidence of the graffiti will exist.
4) Funding for a planning study to identify areas of the City of McFarland that are missing pedestrian and bicyclist related infrastructure such as curb, gutter, sidewalk, ADA curb ramps and missing or burned out street lights. The information included in this study will allow the City to develop a list of projects which will include the costs of the projects.
The City conducted several public workshops as a part of the grant application and the workshops identified blight, graffiti, missing sidewalk and dark streets as their top concerns. The projects mentioned above will help alleviate these concerns.
