HASSO HERING

Carolyn McLeod is shown on the YouTube video of Wednesday’s Albany City Council meeting.

Albany Councilwoman Carolyn McLeod, in her first month in office, sprang a couple of surprise spending proposals on the council Wednesday.

She proposed that in the next biennial budget, $750,000 be allocated to CARA, the Central Albany Revitalization Area, to make more grants “in the interest of the community at large.” She also asked that $10,000 be allocated so the city’s arts commission can fund public art projects such as murals.

The money in both cases would come from the city’s economic development fund, which McLeod said has about $2,772,000 in the draft budget for 2025-27.

She made her proposals in the form of two motions, and fellow freshman council member Michael Thomson seconded both. He withdrew his support after the proposals ran into pushback.

The city staff doubted whether city money could legally be shifted to the Albany Revitalization Agency (ARA), which governs CARA. The council and the ARA consist of the same seven people, but they are legally separate entities.

Another objection was that CARA no longer has a grant program. The urban renewal district intended to conclude its activities with the Waterfront Project, which is supposed to wrap up this year.

The lack of a formal CARA grant program was the main reason the city last year rejected a request for financial aid for the private project of retrofitting the historic Oregon Electric Railway depot as the home of Sybaris, the downtown restaurant.

McLeod didn’t spell out what grants she had in mind for the $750,000 she wants CARA to get.

Her motions died without council action. But council members seemed to ask for a staff report on what it would take to establish a new grant program under CARA and what other activities would have to be cut if money was taken from economic development.

My assumption has been that CARA would die after the Waterfront Project. But Albany’s two new council members seem willing to prolong its life. (hh)