Roseboro mayor Roland Hall, left, talks about stimulus money and grants with board members David Alexander, center, and James McLean, right, during Tuesday night’s meeting.
One of those grants will be for a new well for the town by way of a Community Development Block Grant offered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“We are aware that some of this has taken a new shape,” said Hall during a board meeting earlier this week. “They now have a new version of this grant called CDBG-R. The ‘R’ indicates it’s part of the recovery package. We are hopeful that the Lumber River Council of Governments director, Jim Perry, who is also coordinating studies with this project, will be able to aid us in our effort to get some of this support money to help build our well.”
Hall told board members the current price tag on the proposed well is a hefty $500,000.
“The Rural Center will provide $325,000 of that money to us as a grant, which means that we will have to come up with another $175,000,” said Hall. “That is a lot of money, so we are hopeful that Mr. Perry and his staff can put together a successful grant that will be supplemental to the existing price. Perhaps we can get as much as $100,000 to reduce the amount of expense we have to pay.
“We are trying to tap into as much grant money as we can to help reduce the cost to our taxpayers. Unless you have any opposition, we will work with Mr. Perry to get that grant off to Raleigh before the deadline. I think that it would be irresponsible if we didn’t at least try to get as much grant money as we can in order to provide the services that we need for our folks.”
There was no opposition and the motion was passed unanimously.
Hall also discussed trying to get stimulus money to build a new fire department.
“We received an e-mail letting us know that the federal government is making money available to build new fire stations at no cost to the local governments,” explained Hall. “It also said that they were making money available for renovations to existing fire departments. This is unique because technically, when you apply for a grant, you are supposed to put up matching funds — 30 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent, etc. In this case, the program is paying for it 100 percent.”
Hall reminded board members that a few years back the town attempted to get funding through the USDA to build a new fire station. “But our requirement for the local matching funding was too much,” said Hall, “and we were unable to do that at that time.”
Hall asked the board if members would be willing to proceed to try and get the funding to build the new fire station, courtesy of the U.S. government.
“It is kind of a no-brainer,” he said. “It is no cost to the local citizens; we know that we need a new fire station — what we have got is outdated and we have tried to patch things up to make it work. With our tax situation, we can’t afford to just go out and build one. This is a chance for us to get it done.”
The closeout date for the applications is July 10. Hall also added that he knows it could be a longshot, but it is worth a try.
“They are expecting about 5,000 to 10,000 applications to come in throughout the country,” he said. “We don’t know what our chances are to be honest, but there is $210 million allocated for that project. So, we will send the applications and say some prayers.”
To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@myclintonnc.com.
Really? There was grant money available for the Police Department. The Town haggled for approx. 2and one half months on a way to get rid of the Police Department. What if they would have used that time to try and get the Police Department some GRANT money...also make sure that the new well that is going to be dug will not be on the property of comm. Arnold Sandy