Group plans public meeting about grant to fix up homes

Published 9:35 pm Wednesday, July 19, 2017

MOULTRIE, Ga. — More than two months ago, the City of Moultrie announced it would receive a grant to repair the houses of low-income homeowners. Since then the silence about the matter has caused concern among some citizens.

It Takes a Village and the Villagers, a community group, will host an information session about the grant at 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 24, at the Ryce Center on Seventh Street Northwest. City Manager Peter Dillard will be the speaker.

Dillard warned, though, that he doesn’t have much information to share. The $300,000 grant is administered by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, and Dillard said the DCA hasn’t told the city any details about it since the initial announcement.

In fact, he said, he hopes the announcement of Monday’s meeting will spur the DCA to provide at least some basic details for him to share.

Some things are already known: The grant will help with repairs to owner-occupied housing, so it won’t benefit renters. It’s limited to $50,000 per house, but the city said in May that it wants to focus on smaller projects so more homeowners will benefit. The city also said it wants to emphasize improvements to homes’ energy-efficiency to help bring down utility bills.

The big question: When will the money arrive? Dillard said Tuesday evening that he doesn’t have that answer yet.

Mindful that Dillard may not have much more detail about the grant in time for Monday’s meeting, It Takes a Village also plans to open discussion up for other subjects involving the city.

For more information, contact Alma Fleming, president of It Takes a Village, at (229) 890-3803 or City Councilwoman Susie Magwood-Thomas at (229) 891-3781.