(a) The CIC will provide student loan assistance to an Eligible Person (as such term is defined in Section 193.04 of these Guidelines) who meets the requisite eligibility criteria as set forth in Section 193.05 of these Guidelines, up to available amounts earmarked for said purpose. The CIC Treasurer/Village Fiscal Officer is authorized and directed to pay a given Eligible Person, from time to time, Student Loan Assistance Grants upon satisfaction of all eligibility criteria. The Student Loan Assistance Grant Program shall have a term of five (5) calendar years, beginning in 2019. Thereafter, the Student Loan Assistance Program will renew for consecutive terms of five (5) years, with the approval of both Village Council and the CIC Board. Each five (5) year period shall be deemed a grant cycle.
(b) A Student Loan Assistance Grant shall be in an amount determined by the CIC Treasurer/Fiscal Officer, but in any case shall not exceed the lesser of fifty percent (50%) of the applicant's outstanding student loan debt or fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00), calculated at the time of the grant award by the Newburgh Heights Community Improvement Corporation.
(c) A Student Loan Assistance Grant will not vest upon its award. A Student Loan Assistance Grant will be paid in installments upon the achievement of vesting milestones. Vesting shall not occur on a pro-rated basis. In order for vesting to occur on any particular vesting date, the Eligible Person shall be in full compliance with the requisite eligibility criteria for the program for all periods of time up to and as of the vesting date. Grant awards shall be paid at vesting milestones as follows:
(1) On the date that is the ten-year anniversary of the date on which the Fiscal Officer/Treasurer approved and authorized a Student Loan Assistance Grant, such grant shall be considered eighty percent (80%) vested, and the Fiscal Officer shall pay the grant applicant an amount equal to the sum of eighty percent (80%) of the awarded Student Loan Assistance Grant. Said payment will be made by the CIC to the grant applicant within forty-five (45) days of the date of vesting.
(2) On the date that is the fifteen-year anniversary of the date on which the Fiscal Officer approved and authorized a Student Loan Assistance Grant, such grant shall be considered one hundred percent (100%) vested, and the Fiscal Officer shall pay the grant applicant the remaining balance of the grant after deducting the previously paid eighty percent (80%) of the grant paid to the Eligible Person during the applicable vesting periods. Said payment will be made by the CIC to the grant applicant within forty-five (45) days of the fifteen (15) year vesting date.
(Ord. 2020-24. Passed 5-5-20.)