SUMTER, S.C. — Thousands of dollars are granted each year to help improve cities across the country through the federal government's Community Development Block Grant Program.
This fiscal year in Sumter, the city received $306,499 through the grant to help improve living conditions in low and moderate income neighborhoods.
Norvell Jackson is the city's community improvement director. He says that, as with previous years, they're hosting meetings and want the public's help to decide how money from the grant for the upcoming fiscal year's budget will be best served.
"What we do is first go into the community and show the community what we have done with the funding that we had for the previous fiscal year, which covers those things like demolition, sewer, historical preservation for the downtown area businesses, housing... and showing them what we do as far as rehabilitation," Jackson said.
Then, they open the meeting up for comment.
"A lot of times, people have things in their areas that they're concerned about such as not enough lighting, or if they have an area that when it rains it floods," Jackson said, "They give those inputs and we consolidate all the inputs, take them into council and then we have a public hearing which will be November 19 at 6:00 p.m. in council chambers."
The meetings are held on the following dates and locations:
- Tuesday, September 17, 2019, 6PM, North Hope Center, 904 N. Main St.
- Thursday, September 19, 2019, 6PM, Birnie Hope Center, 210 S. Purdy St.
- Tuesday, September 24, 2019, 6PM, South Hope Center, 1125 S. Lafayette Drive
- Thursday, September 26, 2019, 6PM, South Sumter Resource Center, 337 Manning Ave
- Public Hearing, Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 6PM, Council Chambers 4th floor, Opera House, 21 North Main Street
For more information on our community development program, visit https://www.sumtersc.gov/communitydevelopment