Abbeville, Greenwood, Laurens and McCormick counties and their municipalities are eligible to apply for funding in the new Growing Rural Communities Grant Program.

Recently launched by the S.C. Department of Commerce (SCDOC), the program is designed to support community growth and prosperity by providing funding for programs that enhance economic development, improve infrastructure, and promote quality of life in rural areas.

Eligible recipients are units of local government in Tier III and Tier IV counties in South Carolina. Primary focus will be on counties that were not eligible for funding through the Rural Initiative Grant program.

These counties include Abbeville, Greenwood, Laurens and McCormick in the Upper Savannah Region as well as Cherokee, Chester, Chesterfield, Colleton, Darlington, Horry, Sumter and Union.

The grant funds can be used for a variety of purposes including but not limited to infrastructure improvements, workforce development initiatives, business development and retention programs, and quality of life enhancements.

Projects must lead to community development and can include industrial product development and community revitalization. Only non-business development projects are eligible.

“We have had several towns ask about sidewalks,” SCDOC Rural Development Manager Fearn Gupton said. “It (the funding) could be used to fund a study. It could be used for design work. It can also be used as a match for other funding outside of CDBG (Community Development Block Grant).”

The grant cannot be a match for CDBG, but CDBG can be a match for the grant. So if funding has already been secured from CDBG, and the applicant wants to expand on the project then the Rural Communities Grant funding could be used, according to Gupton.

A community project identification process must be completed prior to grant approval.

Grant values are determined by County designation. Abbeville, Greenwood, Laurens and McCormick all are Tier III.

Tier IV – $250,000 maximum with 10 percent match required.*

Tier III – $200,000 maximum with 10 percent match required.*

Maximum grant and match requirements may be adjusted for economically significant projects.

Grants will be approved by a four-member committee within SCDOC.

For more information regarding the Growing Rural Communities Grant Program, contact Peggy McLean at pmclean@SCcommerce.com or call 803-413-6774.

Upper Savannah COG hosted around a dozen town, city and county clerks this week, giving them an opportunity to discuss common topics which they face in their communities.

One topic was HEAL (healthy eating, active living) mini grants of up to $5,000 to help communities increase access to healthy choices and address health through technical assistance.

The Town of Ridge Spring successfully applied for a mini grant recently, acquiring new playground equipment for the Town Park and a bicycle rack.

The Promised Land community in Greenwood County also acquired a grant for picnic tables and benches at their walking trail.

The grant opportunities are offered by Wholespire, in collaboration with the S.C. Office of Rural Health. The grant application deadline is July 21, 2023.

“They have been very easy to work with,” Town of Ridge Spring clerk/treasurer Summer Brown said of Wholespire.

USCOG Government Services Director Rick Green led the group discussion during an informal lunch Tuesday. He told the clerks that money is available to fund environmental assessments of brownfields sites, enabling for the possible redevelopment of properties that might have contaminants such as asbestos, lead-based paint, oil or other chemicals.

A brownfields site is a former industrial or commercial site where future use is affected by real or perceived environmental contamination.

The site of environmental testing must be owned by a city, town or county, or be supported by a municipality for possible redevelopment.

Green also asked the clerks to support the state’s efforts to survey residents about their home internet access capabilities. The online survey can be accessed at cx.ravencsi.com/aK8qm via cell phone or computer.

The purpose of the survey is to locate underserved areas that lack reliable high-speed internet so the state can address the shortcomings with federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). But the state wants as many residents as possible to take the survey, whether their internet service is great, shaky or non-existent.

Other topics discussed by the clerks include reporting on the spending of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, law enforcement shortages, population growth in some areas of the region, and preparing for the FY 2023-24 budget and 2024 elections.

At the present time, USCOG is hosting clerk lunch meetings twice per year and also hosts public administrators and other officials at various times. Contact Rick Green at 864 941-8072 or rgreen@uppersavannah.com for more information.

The USCOG provides a wide scope of services and performs many functions. We have developed this new activities report as a way to highlight this information and to regularly communicate our general activities in your county with you. Download the February 2023 report here.

 

The Upper Savannah Council of Governments is encouraging participation in the GetConnectedSC campaign to deliver reliable, high-speed internet access across the State.

Part of the campaign’s efforts are to get citizens from the Upper Savannah region and across the state to complete a survey about their internet access capabilities at https://cx.ravencsi.com/aK8qm.

The purpose of the survey is to identify who has fast internet, slow internet or no internet access. The survey results can help determine which areas of the region are underserved with reliable high-speed internet access.

“Elected officials, administrators and other community leaders who are aware of citizens in their jurisdictions who do not have internet access can get them to call me to help them fill out the surveys over the phone,” USCOG Government Services Director Rick Green said. “We need to hear from citizens who lack adequate internet.”

Green can be reached at (864) 941-8072 or rgreen@uppersavannah.com.

The GetConnectedSC campaign is designed to identify the areas of greatest need in our state, invest in broadband infrastructure to those areas and provide support services to make that transformation possible for every home, business and community organization in South Carolina.

The initiative is part of a nationwide effort to improve broadband access. In 2021, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) which included $65 billion for the deployment of broadband infrastructure development and digital inclusion efforts across the country.

As a required first step in the deployment of these funds, South Carolina was granted planning funds for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) and Digital Equity (DE) programs which ultimately lead to additional grants.

The BEAD and DE planning processes which include collecting internet access surveys extend through the summer of 2023 and culminate with the submission of the SC Five-Year Broadband and Digital Equity Plans to the federal government in August.

Once the South Carolina Five-Year plans have been approved, a minimum of $100 million additional federal funds for the BEAD program and tens of millions for the DE program will be made available to South Carolina to continue investment in broadband infrastructure and adoption statewide.

Money is available to fund environmental assessments of brownfields sites across South Carolina, enabling for the possible redevelopment of properties that might have contaminants such as asbestos, lead-based paint, oil or other chemicals.

The Catawba Regional Council of Governments (CRCOG) has received a $1 million sub grant from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control for the implementation of the S.C. Brownfields Environmental Site Testing (BEST) Program.

CRCOG has allocated funding to the 10 Councils of Government regions in the state, with the Upper Savannah Region of Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick and Saluda counties receiving a total of $73,446 to use for projects over a two-year period ending September 2024.

A brownfields site is a former industrial or commercial site where future use is affected by real or perceived environmental contamination.

“The goal of the grant program is we are going to do assessment work on these brownfields properties that are hindered by asbestos, lead-based paint or anything that has some kind of contaminating presence that is hindering the redevelopment and reuse of those properties,” Tyler Lewis of Catawba COG told a group of administrators who attended a lunch meeting at Upper Savannah COG on Feb. 23.

The site of environmental testing must be owned by a city, town or county, or be supported by a municipality for possible redevelopment. A private entity may apply for funding if supported by their municipality or county.

“We will require a letter of support from the administrator or council chair to say, ‘we are on board with this project. We believe it will better our community.’ We don’t want to fund anything that you guys (administrators) may not want to happen,” Lewis said.

Examples of sites that might be redeveloped after environmental testing for contaminants include old gas stations, automobile repair shops, car dealerships, textile mills, etc.

The BEST Program includes Phase I environmental site assessment (average $3,000 – $3,600), phase II environmental site assessment (average $18,000 – $36,000) and analysis of brownfields cleanup alternatives (average $5,500 – $7,500).

Each COG shall determine which projects receive funding in their respective regions based on the following criteria; 1, potential economic redevelopment opportunities (tax revenues/job creation/capital investment potential after cleanup); 2, potential to identify and eliminate environmental hazards (reduction of potential imminent public health risk); 3, potential to redevelop a property for public benefit/use (i.e. park/recreation space); 4, potential to eliminate slum and blight in a community; and 5, potential benefit to low-moderate income and/or rural communities.

Site assessments are capped at $50,000 and a locality cannot have more than five assessments funded by the BEST program. Also, a single locality cannot utilize more than 50 percent of the region’s allocation.

For more information about the program, contact USCOG Government Services Director Rick Green at (864) 941-8072 or at rgreen@uppersavannah.com.