LOCAL STORY OF THE YEAR: Massive grants promise to change community
Jan. 1—MOULTRIE, Ga. — For the past two years, The Moultrie Observer has selected the coronavirus pandemic as its Local Story of the Year. In 2022, the most important story was related to the pandemic: Specifically, massive federal grants intended to spur the economy after fears of the virus have waned.
Colquitt County, the City of Moultrie and others were all awarded large sums as part of federal coronavirus relief measures in 2022.
Internet expansion
The largest of the grants — $22.5 million — went to Colquitt County as part of a partnership with Kinetic by Windstream and Colquitt EMC to bring broadband internet to virtually every household in the county.
The grant is one of several that total almost $83.5 million for broadband projects in Berrien, Brooks, Colquitt, Cook and Lowndes counties. Kinetic is also investing more than $52.6 million in the projects, a company spokeswoman said. Once complete, the projects will make broadband available to 31,904 households that don't have it now.
The State of Georgia is distributing the money as part of the federal American Rescue Plan Act, an economic stimulus bill Congress passed in 2021.
Colquitt County's grant was announced Feb. 1. In August, the Kinetic by Windstream spokeswoman said construction was expected to start late in 2022. The Observer reached out to Kinetic last week to update the company's progress but the email received no response, presumably because of the holiday.
Water, wastewater work
On Feb. 22, three weeks after Gov. Brian Kemp's office announced the broadband grant, it announced two more multi-million-dollar grants that benefited local municipalities.
The City of Norman Park was awarded almost $5.5 million to fund five projects to improve its water and wastewater systems. The city broke ground on one of the projects, a new water pollution control plant, in mid-May, and officials said at that time that another of the projects — sandblasting of the town's water tower — would be done by the end of the year.
According to that same announcement, the City of Moultrie was set to receive $3.5 million to shut down the wastewater treatment facility at Spence Field and direct the waste it currently treats to the city's main wastewater plant on West Boulevard.
Other grants
A sampling of other state and federal grants awarded through the year includes:
—The City of Moultrie received a $1 million state grant in January to provide a new site for the Colquitt County Food Bank.
—Colquitt Regional Medical Center received $900,000 to support initiatives and services that strengthen access to quality care for underserved communities. The grant came from the Georgia Department of Community Health's Rural Hospital Stabilization Grant.
—The Southwest Georgia Area Health Education Center received a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Health Resources and Services Administration. The Albany-based center is using the money to develop and implement a paramedicine program in collaboration with medical facilities across the region, including Colquitt Regional Medical Center.
—The Apprenticeship State Expansion grant is a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Labor that was awarded to the State of Georgia to promote the creation of Registered Apprenticeship Programs. It's administered by the Technical College System of Georgia, and Southern Regional Technical College established a registered apprenticeship program with Robert Hutson Automotive in May.
—The Apprenticeship for Economic Recovery grant provides funding for apprenticeships that upskill Georgia's workforce into careers in industries key to the state's economic recovery such as healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation. This grant is federally funded through Georgia's State Fiscal Recovery Fund and allocated to the State of Georgia through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Southern Regional Technical College is participating in this program too.
This list does not include grants from private organizations, such as the Waldo Deloache Charitable Trust or Colquitt EMC, nor does it include grants announced in 2021 whose projects continued into 2022.
One example of the latter is the county's new mental health building. The City of Moultrie was awarded a Community Development Block Grant from the state in November 2021, but the city council didn't approve the purchase of the building until early 2022. The building was rented to Georgia Pines for $1 per year, but the agency has been making further renovations and hasn't opened the mental health center yet.
