In the same May 12 meeting, officials discussed Mulberry’s relatively low success rate in obtaining grants compared to other towns, with staff attributing this in part to not having sufficient local match money available. Liz Hart emphasized that having capital improvement funds for matching is key, and staff also noted the need to work with Jim Emerson to ensure the city can recover special assessments or take ownership of properties at tax sale. This indicates an active effort to improve grant competitiveness and strengthen the city’s position on properties with liens or assessments, which often tie into rehabilitation or demolition grants.Vendors specializing in grant writing, grant administration, and revenue recovery can engage to help design strategies that use capital funds as match, improve applications, and integrate special assessment policies with future grant-funded revitalization projects.

The city is explicitly concerned that other towns secure more grants and wants to address match funding and tax-sale assessment handling to improve outcomes.