State housing officials have agreed to end a longtime grant funding agreement that once helped Pocomoke City pay to build its own riverfront restaurant, but one that has since failed to generate levels of employment the grant had required.
The Worcester County Board of Commissioners agreed unanimously at its Nov. 6 meeting to close out the grant from the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
As grant recipients, Worcester County and Pocomoke City did everything they were asked to do, “but sometimes, things don’t work,” according to Cindy Stone, director of the Office of Community Development Programs at DHCD.
The collaboration began 16 years ago when Pocomoke City officials decided to build their own restaurant on spec. The plan was an ambitious experiment in economic development: Pocomoke would construct and own the property, and a restauranteur would operate it.
Under the terms of a grant, the state in 2008 agreed to provide $500,000 for construction and another $98,000 for kitchen equipment. Construction of the restaurant began in 2011. Total grant funding eventually came to $623,000.
In exchange, however, the restaurant needed to benefit low-and moderate-income people through job creation. The agreement set minimum staffing levels: 35 full-time jobs with 18 of them, or 51 percent, going to low-to-moderate income employees.
But that never really happened, according to Stone
“For this project, the goal was to create jobs,” she said. “Unfortunately, in this case, when the first restaurateur went out of business, they closed, and all the jobs were lost. The next restauranter agreed to start over, and they would have to stay in place a certain amount of time. They closed and those jobs were lost.”
Pocomoke is not the area for a fine restaurant. McDonald is more the style there. Besides, someone privately wants to buy that place and make another go at it but first they have to get rid of this old deal that was worked out. Wake up.
This project was a turkey from the very beginning.
Come on people
You all already know that anything and everything that the government ever touches is always a total cluster you know what
Pokomoke? Where is that? Probably some upscale place I couldn’t afford anyway. (Snicker)