One man’s desire to get some financial help with renovating his building will have to wait a little longer since the Roseboro town board has denied his request for a facade grant he sought.

Town Clerk Drenda Ammons, at Tuesday night’s meeting, recommended that the board consider approving the grant application, pending the building’s roof being fixed by a certain time.

The building in question, owned by the Rev. Ransom Newkirk, who was not present at the meeting, is located on the corner of Railroad and Roseboro streets and has been discussed by the board for condemnation on more than one occasion.

Had the board approved the grant request, Newkirk would have received $2,000 once all of the renovations to the roof and the facade were complete.

“We do need to see action before giving out money,” said Commissioner Arnold Sandy, in response to Ammons’ recommendation.

Board member Anthony Bennett also felt that the repairs were needed before the town could dispense funds. However, he questioned, “Does he have the funds to pay for this?” And, Bennett suggested that he give the owner six months to finance such repair work.

Mayor Roland Hall reminded the board that the grant does call for the facade of the building to be fixed before any money is provided to Newkirk or anyone else who receives the grant.

Commissioner David Alexander said he felt the repairs to the roof were more important at the time.

“The insides and the roof should be finished first,” said Alexander.

To clarify her original recommendation, Ammons then pointed out, “We just want to make sure that before we spend the money, we want to know that the building will not collapse.”

As Ammons finished, Bennett motioned for the board to approve the application for the grant, pending repairs to the building’s roof by Jan. 14, 2010.

“It is going to take that much time for him to finance it,” said Bennett.

As the board was about to vote, one resident in the audience, Judy Stone, raised her hand and expressed to the board that she is a downtown business owner and also plans to apply for this grant.

Hearing this seemed to change the motivation of the board, and Alexander then questioned if the holdup of the roof repair on Newkirk’s building would prevent other people from getting a facade grant.

Although no one specifically responsded to the query, the board apparently gave it serious thought and, when voting, denied Bennett’s motion 4-1, with Bennett the sole person supporting it.

Alexander commented that since the board had dealt with the deteriorating nature of this building (owned by Newkirk) for a couple of years without much changing, he felt that the board needed to see more action before it would be willing to help.

“More property owners may want this grant,” Alexander stated.

Then Alexander motioned for the board to deny the grant application and ask Newkirk to reapply once the roof has been fixed.

The board approved the measure.