With the assistance of South Delta Planning & Development District, Washington County will be applying for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.
The Washington County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt a resolution to apply for a fiscal year 2020 CDBG through the Mississippi Development Authority.
South Delta Planning & Development District executive director Tommy Goodwin along with director of community development Allyson Denson appeared before the board to make the request.
By way of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the CDBG is a flexible program that provides communities with resources to address a wide range of unique community development needs in the form of annual grants on a formula basis to 1,209 units of local government and states.
“We contacted the city and asked were there some areas in the city where they could supervise the districts in fixing the sewer problems,” Goodwin said.
Some of the areas identified as those which have the brunt of sewer issues so far are located west of Highway 1 and north of Highway 82 and include four of the five Washington County districts.
“The city has agreed to make a match for the funds and the county will apply for a $600,000 CDBG on behalf of the county to help the city with four of your five districts,” Goodwin explained to the board. “They (City of Greenville) will match $1.2 million.”
BOS vice president Lee Gordon inquired about how the block areas are identified according to maps distributed to the board by Goodwin and Denson.
“The little red targets on the map, those are the blocks and block groups that are deemed low and moderate income by HUD and you have to be low and moderate income to be eligible for a CDBG,” Denson responded.
Denson said they found out Washington County was the largest closer of low and moderate based on the CDBG determinant and it just happened to touch four out of five districts in that area.
As far as which areas will be addressed first, Denson said it would more than likely begin with areas with the most dire of circumstances as far as its sewer system.
