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HUD should do right by Brilliant

Surely there is $500,000 somewhere in Washington that can be used to spare Brilliant residents from having to pay for a mistake not of their own making. Let’s hope the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development can find the money and do the right thing for Brilliant.

A new water treatment plant is being constructed in Brilliant. Much of the $3.6 million cost is being covered through state and federal grants and loans, as often is the case with such local projects.

But $500,000 that was to have come from a federal Community Development Block Grant will not go to Brilliant, because of an error last year. It seems that Martin Sohovich, former director of the regional planning commission, allowed work to proceed before an environmental review was completed. By law, such reviews have to be finished before work on a project begins.

Because that requirement was not met, HUD officials canceled Brilliant’s $500,000 grant.

Local officials, with the energetic assistance of U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, attempted to convince the agency to reverse that decision and go ahead with the funding. But last week, Jefferson County Commissioner Thomas Graham reported HUD officials will not do that.

The law is the law, we suppose. HUD officials cannot be blamed for complying with it.

Still, the error was an innocent one. No one involved was trying to circumvent the law.

Graham said he was informed of the situation during a conference call with HUD officials and Johnson. But during that call, the agency’s congressional liaison said attempts would be made to find other funding for the Brilliant project.

If a replacement for the $500,000 grant cannot be found, the cost will have to be borne by Brilliant residents. That would be a stiff penalty for a town with fewer than 1,500 residents.

HUD officials should do the right thing — and find some program other than CDBG to furnish a $500,000 grant for the Brilliant project.

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