Turbeville gets nearly $500K

Item File Photo Residents and visitors enjoy the 2009 Puddin' Swamp Festival in April in Turbeville's Town Square, which will be updated soon with grant money.

By ROBERT BAKER
Item Staff Writer
bbaker@theitem.com

TURBEVILLE — A vital piece of town property here will hopefully get a makeover soon, thanks to a provisionally approved Community Development Block Grant from the state Department of Commerce.

The agency notified Turbeville officials Monday that the town had been awarded the grant to update Turbeville Town Square.

"This is part of our overall downtown revitalization," said Mayor Virginia "Ginie" Turbeville. "We just got the letter ourselves today, and we have been conditionally approved."

The town, which will receive more than $487,000, was one of 12 applicants throughout South Carolina that were awarded the grants, which will be funded through the national American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Final approval must come from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is expected to take about 45 days to review the matter, according to a letter from the state Department of Commerce.

"We found out about the grant through Santee-Lynches Regional Council of Governments," Turbeville said. "They've been working with us on it and helping us write the grant."

The project, which would see the town add sidewalks to Smith, Green and Gamble streets along Town Square as well as parking and landscaping, has been one the town has looked at for years, Turbeville said.

"This is one of those projects that we've tried to get started before, but we were just never able to find the funding," she said. "Our goal is to be able to make our Town Square more attractive and promote the use of it as well as use it for our own events like Scene on the Green (a movie night held once each month) and (the annual Puddin' Swamp Festival held in April). Right now, we only have the sidewalks on one side."

Turbeville said the state Department of Transportation has also criticized the town's "transition" between parking and the roadways.

"We're going to be repaving those roads that we will be putting sidewalks on," Turbeville said. "(SCDOT) says the transition between the parking and the roads are not good, so we're going to repave those roads. The grant will also provide for landscaping and irrigation of the area."

Turbeville said funding was also contingent upon the town's being ready to have the project "under contract for construction by Nov. 30, 2009."

"Santee Lynches tells us that they are fairly sure this will be approved by (HUD) and that we have got to be ready to go," she said. "We should be able, by the time HUD makes final approval, to advertise for bids for the project."

The state CDBG program was awarded about $5.9 million through ARRA, part of nearly $1 billion administered nationwide.

"The CDBG program provides a vehicle to address a variety of opportunities in areas most in need of assistance ... and we are encouraged that these projects will generate meaningful results for communities throughout South Carolina," said Secretary of Commerce Joe Taylor in a release.