ELIZABETHTOWN — Down, but not out.
And certainly not over.
The quest to receive a $5.2 million federal grant for a one-of-a-kind driving pad facility benefiting Bladen County and Bladen Community College has been denied. County Manager Greg Martin and college President Dr. Amanda Lee have confirmed the decision received last month, and they assure the disappointment won’t end their quest.
“What we were trying to do was something very innovative, to combine some different programs, and have the driving program,” Lee said. “It may be that we’re too far ahead of our time.”
The Economic Development Administration, in an email to Martin that he shared with the Bladen Journal, said the request was turned down “due to limited funding available under the FY 2019 EDA Disaster Supplemental Notice of Funding Opportunity.”
But the email from H. Philip Paradice Jr., regional director of the EDA’s Atlanta office, also included an encouragement.
“EDA recently received supplemental funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to support recovery assistance,” Paradice wrote. “Information on the CARES Act Supplemental is available on the Addendum to the FY 2020 Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance Notice of Funding Opportunity (FY20 PWEAA NOFO) for the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA)’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) Recovery Assistance.”
Lee, Martin and a number of others such as college Vice President Sondra Guyton and county Sheriff Jim McVicker, the leading proponents of the plan, knew other avenues for funding would be the next step in the event of a rejection. This gives them another option, and Martin indicated they will be applying.
Lee said the plan for the driving pad facility could change and evolve as they go. She’s praised the idea that formulated before her arrival, when Dr. William Findt was president, and has fervently championed the cause at every opportunity.
The driving pad would be located on land already owned by the Bladen County Sheriff’s Association adjacent to the former prison facility on U.S. 701 between Elizabethtown and White Lake. This is where the Bladen County Emergency Services Training Center is located.
The college learned in April it had landed an $800,000 grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation to “support the construction of a paved driving pad and facilities for a new commercial truck driver training program.”
The facility had an initial proposed cost of $6.2 million. The EDA grant previously sought had a 20 percent match required, and a $1.3 million grant from Golden LEAF was targeted to make that happen. County commissioners gave support, vowing to supply the $1.3 million if the EDA came through but Golden LEAF did not.
The facility would be used jointly by the college and the Sheriff’s Office. As proposed most recently, it would have a 24-foot wide asphalt driving track of 0.9 miles encircle an area to include two 600-by-600 foot asphalt pads. A classroom building, approximately 60-by-100 foot, would also be inside the oval. A smaller oval would adjoin the primary oval.
The college would use it for a number of courses; the Sheriff’s Office would use it for training. Training could also be scheduled by other law enforcement entities that use the only other facility in the state with similar capabilities, one operated by the State Highway Patrol in Wake County.
“We’re scaling down the project some,” Martin said. “We got an $800,000 grant from Golden LEAF, which we want to be the 20 percent match. We hope to have about a $4 million project.”
He said Golden LEAF was specific to fund the driving pad, a building, and an access road. Most likely, the track encircling the facility would not be in the first segment of construction, but could be added later.
“It’s been a lot of work,” Lee said. “If nothing else, everybody including Sondra, are resilient and they’ll come up with a new plan. It may look different in the end, it may happen in phases, but it’s not dead.”