Group aims to help renovate, revitalize C.R. neighborhoods

CEDAR RAPIDS - On hiatus for two years after the Floods of 2008 wrecked Cedar Rapids neighborhoods, the Neighborhood Revitalization Service is back at work.

“We're not that big of a deal, and yet the neighbors are buying into it,” Jerry McGrane said. “They really take ownership and pride in it, and start fixing things up.”

McGrane, a former City Council member, was standing in front of 1548 Sixth Ave. SE, where volunteers and a contractor are rehabbing what had been an abandoned house. It's only the second home rescued and renovated since McGrane founded the non-profit in 2004, but he hopes to build on the momentum.

“We want to have one (house) being bought, one being rehabbed, one being sold,” he said.

Linn County supervisors approved a $10,000 grant Wednesday from the economic development fund to cover unexpected project costs.

The service used $84,500 in Community Development Block Grants to buy and renovate its first home, just around the corner on 16th Street SE from its latest project. The federal money came with a string attached: the buyer could earn no more than 80 percent of the local median income, then $43,200 for a couple.

A murder down the block just as the house went on sale didn't help, but the group sold it after about a year for $57,700.

The sale brought enough money for the group to take on a second project the next spring. But McGrane lost his home to the flood; other volunteers were hit, too.

McGrane said the service's board relaunched it in the fall of 2010. The group bought this project house from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for $15,000 a year ago.

The unplanned expense occurred as a crew removed flashing from the roof in preparation for new shingles. A dormer collapsed through the roof. McGrane said it cost more than $6,000 to repair structural damage.

“That's why we went to the county,” McGrane said. “We had everything budgeted, but even the housing inspector didn't see that coming.”

McGrane hopes to have the house renovated and on the market by June. Meanwhile, the group is already looking for its next project, he said.