More than $41 million in disaster recovery grants is being awarded to 39 Mississippi counties and municipalities for individual projects involving disaster recovery, Governor Haley Barbour and the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) Disaster Recovery Division announced today.
“Hurricane Katrina truly impacted our whole state, and this funding will help key communities in South and Central Mississippi rebuild vital public facilities which were damaged,” Governor Barbour said. “This package will touch most of Mississippi’s disaster declared counties, and it will be used for everything from repairing water and drainage systems, to environmental mitigation to rebuilding public buildings.”
The projects are funded through Mississippi’s $5.48 billion federal Katrina recovery package, composed entirely of flexible Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) monies, which may be used for a variety of public infrastructure purposes.
“These are projects fitting very well into the CDBG program’s traditional scope of work,” said Gray Swoope, MDA Executive Director.
“MDA worked closely with mayors, county supervisors and other local officials to ensure their project proposals would be well planned and ultimately qualify for federal CDBG funds. This included extensive documentation and site visits to verify that each proposal is directly linked to Katrina recovery.”
As a result, 39 out of 49 total applications passed all the federal CDBG requirements. Each of the cities and counties impacted by this package are in the Gulf Opportunity Zone or “GO Zone,” a federally defined area eligible for special tax breaks and supplemental federal investment designed to promote and hasten hurricane recovery.
Of the almost $5.5 billion federal Katrina recovery CDBG package approved for Mississippi, more than $2.3 billion is appropriated specifically for community revitalization projects similar to these, with the rest primarily allocated to various housing recovery programs.
MDA, the state agency administering Mississippi’s CDBG recovery package, works closely with the CDBG program’s parent agency, the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to determine applicant eligibility and disburse all Mississippi CDBG awards.
APPLICANT – PROJECT DESCRIPTION – AWARD AMOUNT Bay Springs – Debris removal/drainage improvements – $265,600 Brookhaven – Debris removal/drainage improvements -$665,000
Carthage – Debris removal/drainage improvements -$3,977,125
Centreville -Demolition of damaged public building and construction of community center -$544,000 Decatur – Repair and improvements of wastewater treatment
lagoon – $909,040
Edwards – Repair/rehabilitation of Town Hall – $320,000 Forest – Repair and renovation of Head Start/nutrition site – $311,800
Hattiesburg – Construction of fire station to replace one damaged by the storm – $1,437,900 Hattiesburg – Improvements to water treatment plant – $2,364,210 Jasper County – Repair of courthouse – $160,480 Lamar County – Expansion and construction of fire stations – $1,931,130
Laurel – Demolition/construction of senior citizens building – $234,000
Laurel – Construction of water treatment plant administrative building
– $1,104,300
Louisville – Repairs to Louisville Coliseum – $606,000 Lumberton – Demolition of damaged buildings and creation of green space
– $1,159,712.82
Magnolia – Downtown revitalization/streetscape repair and improvements
– $633,949
Magnolia – Repair and improvements to elevated water tank – $344,500
McComb – Construction of elevated water tank – $2,000,900
Meridian – Bonita Lake dam repair and drainage improvements – $1,786,000 Oktibbeha County – Demolition and reconstruction of damaged county education building- $1,690,125 Osyka – Restoration and repair and Town Hall – $260,000 Pachuta – Drainage repair and improvements – $580,150 Pelahatchie – Streetscape repair/improvements; building rehabilitation
– $1,810,985
Pelahatchie – Repair and renovation of Town Hall – $231,500 Philadelphia – Replace damaged nutrition site – $1,120,000 Purvis – Repair and improvements of the wastewater treatment facility – $916,200 Ridgeland – Water system improvements – $2,654,881 Shubuta – Debris removal and repair of wastewater treatment lagoon – $121,250 Stonewall – Removal and disposal of storm debris – $405,300 Summit – Downtown revitalization/streetscape repair and improvements – $1,004,752.60 Sumrall – Drainage improvements – $430,700 Taylorsville – Structural repair of Watkins Museum – $152,305.36 Union – Construction of water treatment plant to replace the one damaged by the storm – $2,000,000 Vicksburg – Construction/repair of the damaged fire station and terminal building at city airport – $1,305,750 Walnut Grove – Debris removal and drainage improvements – $916,680 Warren County – Drainage improvements for various bayous – $3,985,863 Waynesboro – Development of new landfill to accommodate debris from Katrina – $796,583 Wesson – Debris removal and drainage improvements – $202,500 Wesson – Sewer system repair and improvements – $209,500
Governor Haley Barbour Press Release
4/15/8
Magnolia Tribune
