TC starts new year with $1.1 million in grants

By DEUCE NIVEN

tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com

     Street improvements, industrial park planning and recreational equipment will be funded for Tabor City in the new year with $1.1 million in grants announced just before 2024 closed.

     Those grants include:

• $950,000 in Community Development Block Grants – Neighborhood Revitalization (CDBG-NR) for restoring and curbing Jones Street.
• $40,000 through the North Carolina Railroad Company for a planning study to develop property off of Ten Mile Road near Tabor City for a railroad industrial park.
• $20,000 from North Carolina’s sports betting fund for parks and recreation equipment at the Tabor City Sports Complex.

CDBG-NR

     Former town manager Al Leonard “had great success” in securing CDBG grants through the North Carolina Department of Commerce, current Town Manager Josh Ward said.

     Those grants generally funded housing rehabilitation or replacement projects. This time, Ward said, the town applied for funds to pave Jones Street and to add curb and gutters there after a sewer replacement project is complete.

     That project will destroy the pavement, which makes it a good time for improvements, Ward said.

     “We’ll have to coordinate with the sewer grant project on the repaving,” Ward said. That is expected later this year.

     Fair Bluff also received a $950,000 CDBG-NR grant, a New Year’s Eve announcement said. Those funds are expected to pay for renovations in the old Fair Bluff School gym, which has been donated to the town by county government.

     A total of 20 CDBG-NR awards worth $25.8 million were included in the grant award to “provide housing and public improvements for low- and moderate-income North Carolinians,” a Department of Commerce news release said.

     For more on this story see this week’s Tabor-Loris Tribune in print and online.