Elmore Co. to Get 600k in Grant Money to Repair Community Center, Homes
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Part of Elmore County will be getting a bit of a facelift thanks to a federal grant.
The county will get about 600 thousand dollars in grant money to improve several homes and a community center.
All of this was spear-headed by Elmore County Commissioner Stephanie Daniels Smoke. She represents district 5, which is where these improvements will happen. Smoke says while the money is not enough to fix everything, it’s a great start.
Mary Ball has lived in an unincorporated area of Elmore County for 40 years. She says the 350 thousand dollars that will soon go to fix houses in her Crenshaw Village Community, is much needed.
“My house needs a lot of repairs and I’m not able to do it,” she says.
Elmore County Commissioner Stephanie Daniels Smoke applied for the grant and says it will help the neighborhood that’s filled with the elderly, many on fixed incomes.
“It’s not just for aesthetics,” Smoke explains. “It’s actually going to make sure that that home, it focuses on health and safety first. So if there’s some houses, that say have mold in it, that would be a number one priority.”
The money will also be used to tear down several abandoned houses. Ball says she appreciates Smoke finding the money to improve the place she calls home.
“She’s doing a good job, good job.”
Just down the street, the former Sandtown Community Center will get 250 thousand dollars for renovations. The kitchen and auditorium will be repaired, heating and air conditioning will be installed and the bathrooms will get handicap entrances. The center plays host to a before and after school kids program, Kids Journey, run by Bessie Jones.
“We have parents that work at the McDonalds and other places that have to be at work at 7 o’clock so they get here at 6:30 in the morning and we have about 15 to 20 children that get here that early in the morning.”
Kids Journey provides hot meals for kids and gives them a place to go and something to do. Glenn Zimmerman, President of the Communities Improvement Association, says the grant money for the community center helps keep the neighborhood safe.
“This was a facility that was built by people carrying bricks,” he explains. “This was not a state project. This was something that was built by the community and therefore, we want to use it to bring the community back up. “
To be clear, this is not state money. Commissioner Smoke tells us it is federal funding but Governor Robert Bentley did have to sign off on it.
Elmore County is just the second county in the state to receive the housing grant.
The first county to get it was Montgomery County.
