The city of Pembroke has determined a local match for a grant that could help eliminate water problems for some city residents.
During its regular meeting Monday, the City Council voted 3-0 to approve a local match of $85,294.12 for its Community Development Block Grant application. The money would only be spent if the city is awarded the grant.
Council member Diane Moore facilitated the vote because Mayor Mary Warnell and council member and mayor pro-tem Johnnie Miller both have conflicts of interest in the grant’s target areas. Miller was absent, and Warnell left the room until the vote was completed.
If awarded, the grant plus matching funds will pay for the replacement of some water and sewer lines in the following areas: Burkhalter Street between Strickland and Poplar streets; Mikell Street to Smith Street; McFadden Drive; Ware Street; Cherry Street; Taylor Street and others.
City Clerk Betty Hill said the city must offer a monetary commitment to the grant because it isn’t “free money.”
The city in March of last year applied for the same grant but was six-thousandths of a point shy of getting the funds, Hill added.
Also during the meeting, Sharroll Fanslau, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, announced the city had received a liability grant funds from the Georgia Municipal Association.
“I’d like to announce that last week we did receive our grant check for $6,000 that we had applied for about a year ago … and that funding will go toward the purchase of two in-car video cameras for our police department,” Fanslau said. “I was really excited to know that we had gotten that.”
According to a release from the GMA, the Safety and Liability management Grant program was introduced in 2000 to provide financial incentive to assist members in improving their employee safety and general public liability loss control efforts through training and the purchase of equipment or services.