The Columbus-Lowndes Airport landed a grant to add a museum honoring Alva Temple and the Tuskegee Airmen to its terminal, but it will not be as much money as the city and county had hoped.
Susan Wilder, Columbus grant administrator, announced during a city council meeting Tuesday the project had been approved for $15,000 from a Mississippi Humanities Council America250 legacy grant, less than the $20,000 for which the airport had applied.
“They got so many applications for this grant that they wanted to give as many of them as they could,” Wilder said during the meeting at the Municipal Complex, explaining why the airport’s full request wasn’t funded.
The city and county committed $10,000 each in match funds for the project, but the reduced award allows them to lower their respective contributions to $7,500. The council voted to do that Tuesday, and Wilder said she expects the county will follow suit.
Alva Temple, originally from Carrollton, Alabama, flew 120 combat missions as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, Black fighter pilots during World War II whose service helped pave the way for the desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and he flew missions in countries like Italy, Hungary and Germany.
In 1949, Temple and his team with the 332nd Fighter Group won the U.S. Air Force’s first “Top Gun” competition. After his retirement from military service, he settled in Columbus, where he passed away in 2004 at age 86.
The museum aims to display exhibits highlighting Temple’s story and the service of the Tuskegee Airmen. It will also include an educational documentary, Wilder said.
Though the original $40,000 scope of the project has dropped to $30,000, Wilder said she is confident that will be enough to create a nice museum at the airport.
“The main thing is that documentary film,” Wilder told The Dispatch after the council meeting. “… The grant itself will cover that, and then we’ll have the other $15,000 (in match) to do the cabinets, the memorabilia, the photographs, any shadowboxes, that kind of stuff.”
Per the grant agreement, Wilder said, the project must be complete by the end of the year. Once the grant agreement is signed, she said the next step is getting quotes from prospective filmmakers for the documentary.
Mayor Stephen Jones said he is looking forward to seeing the project come together.
“Any time you can show favor to someone who has done so much for our community, it definitely means a lot … to his family and to the city, as well,” he said.
Other business
In other business, the council:
■ paid an invoice from Neel-Schaffer for $180,094.59 to cover preliminary design work for Phase 3 of the Sen. Terry Brown Amphitheater;
■ terminated a probationary firefighter for misconduct;
■ approved installing two speed humps on Lawrence Drive, between Maple and Lee streets;
■ approved purchasing four more properties for the Blight Elimination Program, bringing the total the city has purchased to eight;
■ appointed Jerry Fortenberry to the Tree Board;
■ reappointed Chris Chain to the Planning Commission; and
■ reappointed David Armstrong and Melodie Cunningham to the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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