When it comes to dreams, dream big, Darren Leach, executive director of the Memphis Town Community Action Group, told Columbus City Council during its Thursday work session.
Leach told the council he is in the process of applying for a $20 million Environmental Protection Agency Community Change grant that he envisions as a way to breathe new life into Ward 4, as well as other disadvantaged areas throughout the city.
Leach said the EPA offers grants of up to $20 million for communities that meet certain parameters, both for environmental justice concerns and for being economically disadvantaged.
Much of Leach’s focus was on the former Kerr-McGee site, and the area surrounding it, but he emphasized the scope could be wider and take in other disadvantaged areas.
The old Kerr-McGee plant site, which straddles both sides of 14th Avenue North, was declared a Superfund site in 2015 due to creosote contamination in the ground. For much of the 20th century the plant pressure-treated wood products with preservatives, including creosote.
“It was almost like this grant was written for us,” Leach said. “It’s written for communities that are just like us.”
Leach was already working on securing grant money to build a multi-purpose building/storm shelter on the old Pine Yard site, but told the council an EPA representative told him to think bigger.
He took that advice to heart, and Thursday he presented a plan — “Reimagine Columbus” — that would set aside about $14 million for capital improvements; $5.5 million for environmental improvements; and $500,000 for “human capital” improvements.
‘Reimagine Columbus’
“We want to identify and rectify decades of decay in disadvantaged communities,” Leach said. “We had a plant over there that poisoned the community, and then they left. We have sectors of the community where, when investment happens, it doesn’t make it there.”
Of the $14 million set aside for land-based capital improvements, $10 million would go towards redevelopment of the Superfund site.
That piece includes building the storm shelter, installing a micro solar grid on its roof and creating parking spaces and sidewalks.
It also includes $1 million set aside for adding clean energy, such as solar-powered lighting and charging stations, to green spaces and parks; and about $3 million for removing and replacing blighted houses and forming private/public partnerships to build better homes in “disinvested” communities.
Of the $5.5 million environmental piece, $1.75 million apiece goes towards addressing flooding and watershed issues and adding solar technology to “disinvested” communities. The remaining $2 million is split evenly between plumbing improvements in disadvantaged neighborhoods and increasing tree and green space density.
“This is where it gets cool,” Leach said. “We want to put rooftop solar (panels) on individuals’ homes in those disinvested communities. … We can create microgrids, which are like small solar farms, and can provide economic relief to people who need it most.”
About $300,000 of the $500,000 human capital improvements is earmarked for providing community oversight and assistance in executing the project; $50,000 for environmental justice internships; $100,000 for developing skills in green technology, including solar installation and maintenance; and $50,000 to set up crime prevention and re-entry programs and workforce development.
The intent is for the CAG to work with other organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, Leach said. The watershed, flooding and blight pieces are not meant to compete with anything the city is already planning.
The CAG was founded as a non-profit in February 2011. It was originally created by the late Steve Jamison, pastor of Maranatha Faith Center.
“None of us is working in a vacuum,” Leach said. “We are going to weave this into what the city already wants to do.”
The city has earmarked $3 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money to go towards watershed and drainage issues, and has been approved for $3 million in matching funds from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. It has also obligated $500,000 in ARPA funds, plus $3 million in Housing and Urban Development grants, towards blight remediation. The grant could just as easily focus on wider areas of Columbus, rather than the area surrounding the plant site, Leach said.
“There are two trains of thought on this,” Leach said. “We can try to do a little bit everywhere, or we can really pick a few areas and focus there.”
Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard said he liked what he heard.
“Everybody up here speaks about unity and community, and what better way to show that than by coming together for this disadvantaged community,” Beard said. “… One of the biggest disasters in Mississippi happened right here in Ward 4 and now we have a chance to do something about it.”
Mayor Keith Gaskin said he thought the project, if funded, would be good for the entire area.
“A thriving Columbus is a thriving Lowndes County,” Gaskin said. “These things don’t come together overnight, and there will be a lot of hard work and effort that goes into it.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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