Around The Region

Federal aid granted to flood victims\nKOKOMO -- Federal and state officials said Friday they have approved more than $15.5 million in aid to about 5,000 victims of last month's flooding and storms across Indiana.\nThe total includes $9.68 million in grants and $5.91 million in low-interest loans.\nVictims can use the grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover expenses such as repairs and rent. Low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration help homeowners, renters and business owners repair or replace damaged property.\nThe greatest number of requests for assistance has come from Howard County, with 1,900 applications, resulting in 1,336 grants totaling $4.24 million so far. Allen County is next with 434 applications, followed by Adams County with 313 and Wells with 238.\nResidents in 40 Indiana counties declared disaster areas are eligible for assistance.\nWest Terre Haute seeks to resolve debt with Revenue Service \nWEST TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Town officials have submitted a proposal to the Internal Revenue Service to settle a debt that earlier resulted in a lien being placed on town property.\nIt might take months for the IRS to decide whether to accept a proposal that town officials discussed Thursday with an IRS representative, said Melody Buchanan, West Terre Haute's clerk-treasurer.\nThe IRS placed a lien on town property in April because it failed to pay employment taxes on time. The IRS charged West Terre Haute $68,965 in interest and penalties for late payments on about $70,000 of employee withholding taxes from March 1999 to September 2002.\n"The taxes were paid. They were just paid late," Buchanan said.\nThe town proposed to pay the interest and has asked the IRS to waive the penalty, Buchanan said.\n"It's a lump sum that we proposed," she said, amounting to about $7,400.\nCity receives federal grant to demolish older housing\nJEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. -- The federal government has awarded the city a $100,000 grant to demolish aging public housing.\nThe U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development announced the grant for the Jeffersonville Housing Authority on Friday.\nThe city, about 100 miles southeast of Indianapolis, will use the grant to demolish 12 older public housing units at Greenwood Apartments.\n"These grants will allow Jeffersonville to remove these eyesores and be the impetus to improve the site and surrounding neighborhood," HUD Secretary Mel Martinez said in a release.\nThe city was selected from a pool of 102 applications for the 2002 Hope VI Demolition grant program. The grants will fund the demolition of more than 5,700 older public housing units.