[OMS_MANAGERS] OMS Revitalization Grant

[Lise Grato]

In Albany, we used a pre-application process but not a specific grading system. For each project, our selection committee was provided an application, attachments (bids, photos, etc.) and an evaluation form (see attached).

Applications were completed online on a google form. That information was exported to an excel spreadsheet and mail merged into a word doc. This created matching submission forms for easy comparison. It at least allowed the selection committee to look at the information in the same order.

Our selection committee was comprised of eight people including board members, committee chairs, and city partners. That talent pool included a historic building contractor, two historic building experts and a banker.

In the first meeting, the selection committee reviewed the OMSRG materials and our plan. At this meeting, a physical application packet was provided to each member for each project. There was enough time to do an initial look at each project. A couple of applicants were notably not prepared to start their project and were eliminated (we’ll work with them to get ready for other grants). The committee’s homework was to study the remaining applications and fill out an evaluation form for each one.

The second meeting took the selection committee down to two projects.  The evaluation forms were submitted to me electronically (or manually) to create a combo form for each project with everyone’s notes compiled. Between the 2nd and 3rd meetings, site visits were conducted by the committee member contractor with me tagging along. (I’m always excited to go behind the scenes!!)

The third meeting was to discuss the two projects and what the contractor discovered about the project scope, owner’s bandwidth & capabilities, any structural urgency, etc. The combined evaluation forms were used and after a long discussion, a decision was reached.

I asked the selection committee to email me one comment of encouragement and one of something that fell short. Then I called all those not selected and provided them with two of the comments. Then I called the one that was selected. That was a rough afternoon with a sweet finish. Everyone was gracious. The announcement was made on Facebook with a link to the announcement story on our website.

FB Announcement: https://www.facebook.com/AlbanyDowntown/posts/10158505759721957
Link to article: https://albanydowntown.com/sybariss-oregon-electric-railway-depot-project-selected-as-albanys-omsrg-partner/

There are some things we’ll likely do differently next time (like starting a month or two earlier), but overall it worked very well.

I hope there’s something in our process that helps other Main Streets.


Thank you,

Lise Grato
Executive Director

Albany Downtown Association
128 Ferry Street SW
Albany, OR 97321
www.albanydowntown.com<http://www.albanydowntown.com/>
W: (541) 928-2469
C: (541) 905-2908






From: OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov> On Behalf Of Chiloquin Com. Builders
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2022 3:43 PM
To: Oregon Main Street Network Members <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>
Subject: Re: [OMS_MANAGERS] OMS Revitalization Grant


Hi Dave -

Chiloquin recently used the following criteria to make our choice of projects for our grant application. We did not assign a scoring system per se but these are the factors we evaluated. Hope they might give you a few ideas.

Historic Property/Building located downtown?
Historic Building Evaluation complete?
Environmental Phase I Site Assessment complete?
Environmental Sampling or Cleanup needed?
Structural/Seismic Soundness
Is there an established community vision for the building?
Building owner interest
Building owner matching funds available
Building owner capacity to support grant project
Are project cost estimates available?
Potential to create jobs and meet community needs and goals of economic development plans
Access to broadband and internet


Cathy Stuhr - Chiloquin Community Builders

On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 10:54 AM Dave Rucklos <dave at downtownmcminnville.com<mailto:dave at downtownmcminnville.com>> wrote:
Hi all,

Does anyone have a scoring criteria developed for evaluating Revitalization Grant applications?
We've had six submitted and I expect things could get a little political.

Thank you all.

Dave

--
Dave Rucklos
Executive Director
McMinnville Downtown Association


--
Chiloquin Community Builders
Cathy A. Stuhr
503-702-4974

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/oms_managers/attachments/20220219/c70c3c37/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Grant Eval Grid 2022.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 60016 bytes
Desc: Grant Eval Grid 2022.docx
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/oms_managers/attachments/20220219/c70c3c37/attachment-0001.docx>