Southtowns Record

City Council minutes — October 16, 2026

Government
City of Lackawanna
Board
City Council
Meeting
Oct 16, 2026
Kind
Minutes
Topics
Audits and oversight, Roads and traffic

Original document

Same meeting

Text · page 1 of 2

Public Hearing – CDBG Funding
  October 16, 2026

A public hearing was held on Friday, October 16, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 2838 South Park Ave. Lackawanna City
Hall. The purpose of the public hearing was to provide citizens a chance to make known their views and/or written proposals on the
City of Lackawanna’s selection of potential projects to be submitted for possible funding by the Federal Community Development
Grant Program.

Mayor Annette Iafallo commenced the public hearing at 1:00 p.m.

Attendance:

Annette Iafallo, Mayor
Grace Marrano, City Clerk
Karl Anderson, 2nd Ward Council Member
Gail Nicholson, Secretary to the Mayor
Gene Olivieri, III, Technology
Christy Cooper, Assistant City Attorney
Dan Geercken, Public Works
Chuck Clark, Director of Development
Peggy Bigaj‐Sobol, Comptroller
Tom Nicometo, Director of Purchasing

Citizens present at hearing:

Alex Andrzejewski
M.Lisa Rizzo

Mayor Iafallo welcomed the attendee’s and gave a brief statement. Mayor Iafallo stated that as per Municipal Home Rule Law, a
Notice of Public Hearing was published in the Buffalo Business First newspaper, the official newspaper of the City of Lackawanna, on
October 2, 2026, as well as the Official City Website and City Hall bulletin boards. The Mayor also read the following:

Important CDBG Facts

    The Erie County Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is a federally funded HUD program administered by
  the Erie County Planning Department for participating municipalities…in what’s termed the consortium.

    Lackawanna is one of 34 municipalities in the consortium, which consists of 2 cities, 21 towns and 11 villages.
  o City of Buffalo and towns of Amherst, Cheektowaga, Hamburg and Tonawanda (and related villages) are not in the
  consortium. They act alone.

    Lackawanna has been in the CDBG consortium since the early/mid 1990’s.

    Erie County receives an annual funding allocation from HUD and selects eligible projects in the consortium community
  through its planning process – of which this public hearing is part of.

    For consortium communities, CDBG funds generally support improvements benefiting low – and moderate – income
  residents, typically those addressing slum or blight conditions, or meeting an urgent community development need.