The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority’s bid for Neighborhood Stabilization Program III funds to acquire about eight properties in North Rome for The Overlook at Fairgrounds development has been rejected.

NWGHA Executive Director Sandra Hudson said the location of the property is not eligible for NSP funding. NWGHA Technical Services Director Steve Chumley said that development is now projected to include 32 residences to replace the 36 units that were demolished more than a year ago off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard across from the Coosa Valley Fairgrounds.

“The housing authority will have to purchase that with the $1 million (replacement funds) that we received for Charles Hight Homes,” Hudson said. “It’s a slow process but we are moving forward.”

Hudson said several of the properties are in foreclosure, and she does not expect the purchase prices to be particularly high.

In other business:

 The NWGHA was the low bidder for the old Euharlee School property in Rockmart. The housing authority has agreed to pay $71,000 for the property. Plans for the old school building are uncertain at this time.

“We want to do what is needed and what we can afford,” Hudson said.

She said that the housing authority would seek grant money for whatever it decides, along with city officials in Rockmart, to do with the old school building.

The authority also owns another old school building in Rockmart, which she said she is considering for use as senior housing.

 Chumley reported that the authority has narrowed the field of prospective companies to partner with the authority in the development of a comprehensive energy savings program to three: Siemens, Honeywell and Johnson Controls. Interviews will be conducted with each of the companies in January.

 Public housing employees in Rome will get Christmas bonuses this year but they will not get pay raises in 2013. The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority board approved the bonuses Thursday morning, amounting to $100 per employee plus $25 for each year a person has been employed with the authority.

“We performed well enough this past year to be safe with approving bonuses,” Finance Director Philip Steers said. “I do not recommend raises at this time because certain program are carrying deficits and we wouldn’t be able to support the raises.”

Steers also said that the Department of Housing and Urban Development is very particular about how bonuses are doled out. “There’s the right way, there’s the wrong way and there’s the HUD way,” Steers said. “You cannot give bonuses with federal dollars. You can give bonuses if you put it in your budget.”

Hudson said the bonuses were factored in the housing authority’s budget.

After approving the Christmas bonus package, the authority agreed to write off more than $24,500 in rental payments and late fees that had been lingering on the authority’s books. Hudson said the authority will still continue attempts to collect on the debts, but that getting the figures off their books is important as far as reporting accounts receivable to HUD is concerned.