Last modified: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 1:38 AM EDT Mayor, ARA strike a deal BY GEORGE W. RHODES SUN CHRONICLE STAFF ATTLEBORO - Mayor Kevin Dumas pledged to give the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority at least $75,000 and possibly as much as $125,000 in an 11th-hour deal Tuesday that still leaves the cash-strapped agency with a budget shortfall, but a little more optimistic. City Councilor Brian Kirby, chairman of the capital improvement and city development committee, said he floated the proposal to the mayor over the weekend and he and Dumas hammered out the details today in a private meeting. Dumas said compromise has always been on the agenda. "I said two weeks ago that we'd consider an application for the industrial business park and I didn't waver from that," the mayor said after Tuesday's council meeting confirmed the deal. Kirby said he believed there was the possibility of a deal because the mayor has publicly said he was willing to work with the ARA. "There was room for compromise," he said. "I drafted it and proposed it to the mayor over the weekend and he agreed." The deal guarantees the ARA at least $75,000. If Dumas can find the money, the ARA could get up to $125,000. However Dumas said he believes the ARA still needs to trim its budget. "They still have adjustments to make," he said. "We'll be working with them." ARA member Don Smyth said the agency will do the best it can. "We're hoping for the best," he said. "Obviously we're hoping for the higher end of the range, but we know there are no guarantees. We presented our case. These projects are very important to the city and it would be a shame to abandon them now." The agreement resolves for the moment a heated controversy that erupted several weeks ago when the administration decided not fund a portion of the ARA's administrative budget as it has in the past through the Community Development Block Grant from the federal government. The decision left the ARA about $175,000 short, an amount that officials said would severely limit progress on the industrial business park on Ides Hill. Dumas said the ARA had failed to become financially independent as promised and that the city has economic development needs of its own to pursue. All told, there is $300,000 available in the $463,000 CDBG fund for economic development. The matter was complicated two weeks ago when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the CDBG money, barred the city and ARA from spending any funds on economic development until questions about meeting HUD regulation on job development were resolved. Those questions still must be answered before the ARA gets any money, according to the deal. There was pressure on the city to solve the ARA problem because the CDBG budget must be submitted to federal officials by May 15. ARA officials said the lack of CDBG money would severely hamper administration of the industrial business park project. Without money to fight law suits on the price of land or to oversee construction of roads, progress on the park would "grind to a halt." The council voted 10-0 Tuesday to submit the CDBG budget as written by the administration, but recommended that the mayor allocate from $75,000 to $125,000 to the ARA from whatever source he deems appropriate.