OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford From left to right, Vince DeJoy, head of Dunkirk’s Planning and Development Department; city Councilmember Natalie Luczkowiak, chair of the council’s Economic Development Committee; and Nicole Clift, who coordinates the city’s Community Development Block Grant efforts, sit at a recent meeting of the committee.

City of Dunkirk planners are putting the call out for public input on the latest Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) plan.

Nicole Clift, who administers the city’s CDBG efforts, told the city council’s Economic Development Committee recently that public input meetings and a survey are planned about what the city should do with its next round of money. Dunkirk gets CDBG money annually; the grant program is run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

One public input meeting was Tuesday at the Dunkirk Library. Another is scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 20 at the SUNY Fredonia Incubator on Central Avenue.

Clift is developing the survey, which will be distributed on social media and through traditional paper copies. She’s also reaching out to local organizations to hear their ideas.

“We put together all of that at the end of the day with what we (in the city planning department) see as the city’s needs as well,” she said.

Clift noted that a five-year plan for CDBG grant spending is getting formed. “Public input and voices are heard at this point. This is our plan for the next five years,” she said.

She said city planners’ top two priorities are a sidewalk project near the Dunkirk Farmers Market’s new pavilion, to improve access for seniors from the nearby senior center, and a path to Wright Park on an unopened portion of Pine Street. That’s intended to offer an improved physical connection between the local neighborhood and the park.