Lenoir submits $8.5 million in Golden LEAF requests

With $2 million at stake, Lenoir County citizens and government officials have showered the Golden LEAF Foundation with grant requests.

Golden LEAF is giving $2 million grants to each of the state’s poorest counties through its Community Assistance Initiative.

Each community decides what its priority projects are, and individual groups or government entities submit proposals to Golden LEAF. The group’s board has the final say on which proposals are approved.

Nov. 2 was the deadline for Lenoir County organizations to submit their proposals.

“We’ve gotten probably $8.5 million worth of grant requests,” Golden LEAF president Dan Gerlach said Friday.

He said the proposals cover “a wide range of projects in the areas of economic development and infrastructure and things of that nature.”

During a series of monthly meetings held since June, community members set their local priorities — economic development, education and health care — and discussed how those priorities could be met.

Gerlach said examples of those projects included local redevelopment, waterfront recreation facilities, improvements at Lenoir Memorial Hospital and community health centers, and youth programs.

Pride of Kinston director Adrian King said he sought funding for engineering work on a long-desired pedestrian bridge across the Neuse River that would “connect the very popular (Neuseway) Nature Center with the downtown shops and restaurants,” and for Pride’s ongoing plans to beautify the entrance to Maplewood Cemetery.

The cemetery entrance is part of Pride’s wider effort to revitalize South Queen Street between King Street and Springhill Street, which includes streetscaping and building a new All-America City park.

“We’ll just see what happens,” King said. “They’re good economic development projects.”

Recreation director Bill Ellis also submitted proposals to fund renovations at Smithfield’s former Vernon Avenue plant, which has been selected to house the Woodmen of the World’s community center.

“We can tear down most of it, but we want to save some of it and renovate it,” he said of the plant.

Ellis also sought funding for “retro-green” recreation projects in flood buyout land, such as a disc golf course.

Golden LEAF staffers will attend Monday’s meeting at Lenoir Community College, and give feedback on all of the proposals, Gerlach said.

Then, local citizens will form a review committee and decide how to narrow down the list so it fits the $2 million limit.

“The board and the staff of the Foundation are ultimately responsible (for approving projects) but we give a lot of deference to local people who are participating,” Gerlach said.

David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.

If you go
What: Golden LEAF community meeting
When: 6 p.m. Monday
Where: Waller Auditorium, LCC