By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Ortonville- On Oct. 28, the village council voted 7-0 to distribute half of their $7,000 Community Development Block Grant money to emergency services: sustenance payments and the other half to child care services. On Nov. 4, the Brandon Township board of trustees also voted to allot $19,409 of CDBG funds to mobile home repair, $4,817 to youth services, and $3,500 for services for victims of domestic violence, dating violence sexual assault or stalking.
The CDBG program was established by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1974 to commit federal funds to local governments nationwide to provide decent housing, a suitable living environment, and to expand economic opportunities.
In the past, money allotted to youth services and child care services has gone to Brandon Groveland Youth Assistance, emergency services has gone to the Ortonville Community Emergency Fund, and services for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking has gone to HAVEN of Oakland County.

“Our main charge as the board is prevention, which fell into my realm of life from fire prevention that I dealt with for 35 years,” said BGYA Chairman Bob McArthur. “What we have done and what we have attempted in the past is to provide things in the community for these kids to hopefully keep them from having to go to the case worker. “
Both organizations received CDBG funds last year as well from the village, with the same 50/50 split, with the same $3,500 going to each organization.
“I went ahead and detailed where I believe we ought to keep this government money in our local areas,” said Ortonville Council President Pro Tempore Dan Eschmann. “OCEF treats hundreds of families, Thanksgiving, Christmas, they bag up hundreds and hundreds of toys and food for Thanksgiving dinner. I think Brandon Groveland Youth Assistance is an extremely great program for kids that truly need it and that could eventually go down the wrong way if they didn’t have that type of program, and for me, there are many, many other programs that are supported outside of this community and to me, if there’s any chance that we can keep these dollars, albeit small, within our community, I think it’s important that we need to consider it.”
Others spoke during both public hearings in favor of BGYA. There was not a representative present for other organizations.
“As law enforcement, our goal is to never criminally charge a minor, a student, unless we absolutely have to, and almost on a monthly basis we have to send something to the prosecutor’s office, where the prosecutor’s office is furthering the case to Brandon Groveland Youth Assistance in lieu of prosecution, which is our goal,” said Lt. Greg Glover, Brandon substation commander. “So from a law enforcement perspective, I highly support BGYA and as a coach, I’ve had a lot of players that cannot afford the sport they want to play for, and when you have a scholarship like that, that allows that student to be able to participate, it changes that student’s entire school years because it allows them to play.”