Back to the drawing board?

Community organizers who helped the city apply for an application for a federal energy efficiency grant are asking that the funds be redirected to their original purpose — a targeted economically distressed area of east Greensboro.

A draft agreement attached to an item on the agenda for tomorrow’s Greensboro City Council meeting requesting approval for “redesign” of the program has this to say about the eligible area for the grant: “All loans closed through this program must be for qualifying properties located within the city limits of the city of Greensboro.”

Assistant City Manager Denise Turner told me today that the city received approval from the US Department of Energy through verbal conversation and e-mails last November to change the geographic scope of the $5 million grant.

From an e-mail received today from Danielle Byrnett, program manager for the BetterBuildings program at the US Department of Energy:

Greensboro is currently approved to offer the program in east Greensboro, per the application the city submitted originally, and will need to submit a formal request to DOE to expand the geography of the program beyond that area if it wishes to do so. City staff just learned last week that they need to submit a formal request, which DOE has consequently not received.

Turner says, if necessary, she will pull the item from the agenda to ensure that the city has necessary approvals before proceeding.