Phenix City awarded grant from Gov. Bentley | Community Spirit

PHENIX CITY, AL - Gov. Robert Bentley has awarded $700,000 to improve living conditions and eliminate some safety hazards in Tuskegee and Phenix City. 

Bentley awarded a $450,000 Community Development Block Grant to Tuskegee to rehabilitate a dilapidated neighborhood and a $250,000 CDBG award to help Phenix City improve 13 streets.

“Each community in Alabama has specific needs and priorities that must be addressed in order to maintain and improve the quality of life for residents,” Bentley said. “The Community Development Block Grant program helps local governments, operating under increasingly tight budgets, to undertake urgent improvement projects that otherwise would be impossible without cutting other services for residents.”  

Tuskegee will use its grant to resurface Gautier, Church, Ship and McMillan streets, Yankee Circle, Highland Hills and Southmont Drive in the south part of the city. Tuskegee also plans to replace water lines in that area to repair breaks, improve water pressure and upgrade fire protection. In addition, twenty-one dilapidated houses are slated to be razed. Local funding of $149,447 has been committed to the project.

The Phenix City project will include resurfacing streets in the North Railroad Street neighborhood. City officials said indentions, worn asphalt and uneven surfaces make the roads hazardous for traffic. Approximately three miles road surface will be milled, leveled and repaved. The city will provide $79,604 in local funding for the project.

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community is administering the awards from funds made available to the state by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Bentley notified Mayor Omar Neal of Tuskegee and Mayor H.S. “Sonny” Coulter of Phenix City that funding had been approved.