Those who attended last week’s public administrators lunch meeting at the Upper Savannah COG learned that funding is available for the acquisition and/or development of outdoor recreation areas.

Funding is also available for tourism attraction projects and recreation trails, according to guest speaker Debbie Jordan who is the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and Undiscovered SC Grants Coordinator.

Jordan told the group that LWCF outdoor recreation grants require a 50 percent match and are reimbursable. Grants range from $50,000 to $300,000. However, if the proposed project is determined to have regional or statewide significance it may be eligible for funding up to $500,000.

Acquisition projects, development projects, and the combination of acquisition and development projects for public outdoor recreation only are eligible.

Associated support facilities and infrastructure are also eligible (lighting, parking, roads, water/sewer, restrooms, etc.). Certain indoor facilities supporting outdoor recreation activities in the project area may be eligible (restrooms, visitor information kiosks, buildings that interpret resources of the project area).

The application cycle will be announced this summer; grant awards will be announced in October 2026.

Jordan said the program has lots of available funding and encouraged sending applications.

“The best way to put it right now is your biggest competition is yourself,” Jordan said when asked about the competitiveness of the grant request process. “As long as you write a good application and it scores high enough, it will likely get funded.”

The Undiscovered SC Grant program provides assistance to local governments for the creation or expansion of tourism with the potential to add value to their communities. The Abbeville Opera House received funding from this program in recent years.

Undiscovered SC represents the largely unknown and under-utilized travel experiences that can
be found throughout South Carolina. It is the untapped tourism potential of a developing
destination and its historic, cultural or recreational attractions.

The applicant must be a county or municipal government with total State Accommodations Tax distributions of $900,000 or less. Grants range from $100,000-$200,000 and require a 1/1 cash match.

The Undiscovered SC Grants application cycle will be announced in May; grant awards will be announced in October.

The Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grant program provides funds to develop and maintain recreational trails and trail-related facilities. Grants range from $10,000-$100,000.

Eligible projects include construction of new recreational trails, hiking/walking, cycling/mountain biking, OHV-use (ATVs and off-road motorcycles), kayaking/canoeing, horseback riding/equestrian, maintenance and restoration of existing trails, and development and rehabilitation of trailhead and trailside amenities

SCPRT will begin accepting Letters of Intent for trails projects in August 2025.

For more information, contact Jordan at njordan@scprt.com for outdoor recreation and tourism grants, and Neal Hamilton at nhamilton@scprt.com for trails grants.

Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and Undiscovered SC Grants Coordinator Debbie Jordan speaks at Upper Savannah COG Public Administrators meeting.

Upper Savannah Council of Governments provides a wide scope of services and performs many functions. This activities report highlights this information and offers us the chance to regularly communicate our general activities in your county with you. Download the January report here.

Upper Savannah Council of Governments provides a wide scope of services and performs many functions. This activities report highlights this information and offers us the chance to regularly communicate our general activities in your county with you. Download the November report here.

Upper Savannah Council of Governments provides a wide scope of services and performs many functions. This activities report highlights this information and offers us the chance to regularly communicate our general activities in your county with you. Download the September report here.

Upper Savannah COG played a leading role in Piedmont Technical College receiving an $11.27 million Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant award for construction of a new health science building. The grant award was the largest ever received from an Upper Savannah submitted application.

Upper Savannah Government Services Director Rick Green said the COG and Piedmont Tech (PTC) were in “the right place at the right time” in receiving the grant award.

This project consists of the construction of a 27,000 square foot building for PTC’s Nursing and Health Science programs. The building is to be constructed on 1.5 acres on the PTC Greenwood Campus adjacent to the existing Health Science Building.

The two-story building will be approximately 150 feet by 90 feet with a structural steel frame and combination of masonry, and curtain wall exterior with a low slope PVC roofing system.

The total project cost is $14,089,621. The federal grant award of $11,271,697 announced in early October covers 80 percent of the cost of the project. The applicant (PTC) will contribute a required 20 percent match of $2,817,924.

This project will provide spaces that simulate real-world conditions which align with industry standards to prepare healthcare students to be work-ready upon graduation. The building will include 10 nursing simulation spaces, six nursing skills labs, three classrooms, two computer labs, two debrief/collaboration rooms, an echo simulation lab, and a catheterization lab.

Upper Savannah first submitted an application to EDA in April 2023 as part of a disaster declaration related to Hurricane Ian. Disaster declarations allow for higher request amounts than typical $1 to $2 million EDA applications and also require smaller matches, Green said. So USCOG requested $6 million on PTC’s behalf.

“The original disaster declaration application did not get funded. But the application was still in the system and our EDA rep Robin (Cooley) recommended that we apply in the regular (EDA) cycle,” Green said.

“We moved everything over to the regular cycle, which would typically mean a higher match. We left the request at $6 million. Then Robin calls in late August and said a (proposed) project had fallen through and asked would Piedmont Tech be interested in seven million instead of six million?” Green said.

“She called back and another project had fallen through and they (EDA) needed to allocate the money by the end of September. She said, would Piedmont Tech be interested in 11 million dollars?

“And that’s how we got to that number, just being in the right place at the right time with other projects in other places falling through,” he said.

Had the grant even been $6 million, PTC would have had to find funding from other sources to cover the remaining costs of the building.

Green said the building will provide a great service to the entire Upper Savannah Region as PTC will be better able to train future healthcare workers to serve throughout the area.

“It gives them more modern facilities and allows more space where they can focus on the types of training activities that they need,” Green said. “The space that they currently have is smaller and outdated. I am glad that Piedmont Tech can take advantage of this opportunity. It is a huge need and something Piedmont Tech has wanted for a very long time. It will impact the whole region.”

Upper Savannah staff will administer the project, which includes sending quarterly progress reports to EDA. The COG will work with a project manager who is assigned by EDA as well as the architect and PTC staff.

A timeline for requesting bids and awarding a construction contract and the actual construction beginning and end dates have not yet been set.

Green prepared the grant application while USCOG Government Services Project Manager Cason Wright provided assistance with the environmental review. Upper Savannah Assistant Director Sam Leaman was also involved.

Upper Savannah staff worked with PTC Associate Vice President for Executive Affairs Caroline Chappell to complete the application.

Back in 2018, Upper Savannah secured a $1.5 million EDA grant for construction of the William H. “Billy” O’Dell Upstate Center For Manufacturing Excellence in 2018. The 45,000 square foot, $12.5 million facility houses PTC’s Welding, Machine Tool Technology and Mechatronics programs as well as space for workforce training.