City To Get $411,000 Grant For Project
December 11, 2010
By CHRIS TRAINOR
Index-Journal
Greenwood, SC - The City of Greenwood is set to receive more than $400,000 from the state Department of Commerce’s Community Development Block Grant program for streetscape improvements along West Court Avenue.
The city announced the grant Friday morning. The city will be awarded $411,181 through the grant, and is required to provide a 10 percent cash match on the funding.
The streetscape work to be done on West Court is set to have much the same look as the improvements that have taken place on Maxwell Avenue and Oregon Avenue in Uptown. The planning phase on the project will begin in early 2011, and meetings will be conducted with property owners on and adjoining West Court Avenue, to get feedback on the design process.
The design phase of the project will begin in spring 2011, with construction set to begin in the fall or possibly early 2012.
Greenwood city manager Charlie Barrineau said the goal of the project is to encourage new business to occupy currently vacant buildings on West Court and to encourage new construction and investment along the avenue.
Barrineau said it took a team effort for Greenwood to get the CDBG funding for the project.
“Greenwood’s city center effort is a wonderful example of what can happen when agencies partner and work together,” the city manager said. “Much credit needs to be given to Greenwood City Council, the Commissioners of Public Works and the Upper Savannah Council of Governments.”
Greenwood CPW has committed $28,000 toward the West Court project to include labor, equipment and materials to place electrical lines underground and install seven decorative street lamps.
Meanwhile, Upper Savannah Council of Governments drafted the grant application for the project.
Greenwood Mayor Welborn Adams was pleased the Department of Commerce chose to award the more than $400,000 in grant funds to Greenwood.
“We are very appreciative to Governor Mark Sanford and Commerce Secretary Joe Taylor,” Adams said. “The South Carolina Department of Commerce has played a huge role in the implementation of the City Center Master Plan.”
With this latest grant announcement, the City of Greenwood has now received more than $2.5 million in grant funds for Uptown improvements since the implementation of the City Center Master Plan in 2005. The West Court project will be the seventh streetscape project in the Uptown area.
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