Golden LEAF president visits Kinston

The Golden LEAF Foundation is planning to generously allocate grants in the coming months - including a $2 million payment to Lenoir County.

Dan Gerlach, president of the Rocky Mount-based foundation, said $35 million has been set aside for its Community Assistance Initiative program.

Through the program, Tier 1 counties - the 40 most economically distressed counties in the state - receive $2 million each for community projects chosen by a panel of citizens.

Gerlach and other Golden LEAF staffers will begin meeting with Lenoir County citizens in the next 30 to 60 days to discuss how that money should be spent locally.

"We like things that will leverage the federal stimulus dollars, and other dollars," he said during an exclusive interview with The Free Press.

Gerlach said using Golden LEAF grants in conjunction with federal stimulus allocations is an ideal use of that money.

Foundation officials plan to begin talks with citizens in Greene and Jones County - also Tier 1 counties - about their $2 million grants toward the end of 2009.

The Community Assistance Initiative grant comes on the heels of a $100 million grant Golden LEAF gave to the Global TransPark Authority last spring to fund construction of Spirit AeroSystems' GTP facility.

The foundation has also supported health care, tourism and economic development projects in Kinston and Lenoir County, although there will be greater focus on aerospace projects in the coming years.

"Aerospace is going to be an important part of Kinston's future," Gerlach said. "We've made grants here on a variety of fronts to help diversify the economy of Lenoir County."

Foundation officials plan to take their entire tobacco settlement allocation for next fiscal year - about $60 million - and put it toward grants, plus repay the loan taken out to fund its Spirit grant.

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

What is Golden Leaf?
The Golden LEAF Foundation was set up in the late 1990s to distribute tobacco settlement money in the form of grants, in order to promote economic development in rural counties such as Lenoir, Greene and Jones. For more information, visit www.goldenleaf.org, call 1-888-684-8404 or e-mail info@goldenleaf.org.