Roseboro’s Board of Commissioners, as well as mayor David Alexander, were excited to see the support the town received from its citizens Wednesday morning when officials from the North Carolina Small Towns Economic Prosperity (N.C. STEP) grant organization paid a visit.
Officials were in town to go over details on the start of year-long training with town leaders for the grant. They also traveled to Garland, the only other Sampson County town awarded the N.C. STEP grant last month.
Twenty-five thousand dollars of the $125,000 grant will be spent on training, which should take about a year, Alexander said. The rest of the $100,000 will go towards implementing projects that will improve the towns, expected over another year’s time.
During the two-year process,the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center will provide guidance and support as the two towns build inclusive, community-wide leadership teams that will develop plans and carry out town projects throughout the 24 months.
Alexander said at a special called board meeting Monday night that he wanted to see a lot of support from the citizens at Town Hall Wednesday.
“We would like to see this place filled for these guests coming in,” he told the board. “This is important to us, and our citizens have been so supportive, we would like for them to see how much we appreciate this support and this grant because it will really help us.”
N.C. Rural Economic Development, Inc. President Billy Ray Hall and Art Jackson, director, Small Towns Initiative, were in Roseboro from 10 a.m to noon; and then traveled to Garland from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
“They are going to congratulate us and make plans for our training,” said Alexander. “We really don’t know exactly what they are planning, but we figure that they will begin to tell us what we can use that grant for.”
In Garland, Mayor Winifred Murphy said the town’s leadership team were the only ones that met with the officials. “I believe this is just the beginning of the planning phase, so we are just going to have our group meet with them. We are going to let the group handle this meeting.”
On June 6-7, officials from both towns will travel to Raleigh to officially be congratulated by state officials for being two of 10 given the $125,000 grants.
“We are going up there on June 6,” said Alexander. “Gov. Bev Perdue will be there and that will make it all official.”
Alexander said that he is hoping to make some much needed upgrades to the downtown area, as well as the Depot (at Roseboro Park) and, if all goes well, put a splash pad at the park.
“The kids around here need that,” he said. “If we can use some of that money on that, it would be great. But we just have to wait to find out what we can use it for.”
Murphy said the grant will be used for town planning, training and support for the town’s growth. “It is all about job creation and continuing to give quality services to our citizens.”
To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or email to sisports@heartlandpublications.com.
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