RSS Feed
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
T'ville receives ALDOT funding for industrial park access road Thomasville was awarded a $1.12 million grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation last week to help pay for the creation of an access road into Thomasville's new south industrial park. "That brings our total amount of funding up to $2.2 million for the project," said Mayor Sheldon Day. "It's terrific news for Thomasville." Day said the grant means that Thomasville has secured state and federal funding to cover nearly the entire cost of the project. The county will chip in about $500,000, Day said. Engineering on the park's layout and the access road is already complete. Day said he expected the project to go to bid in February and for the road to be completed possibly by May or June. The access road will have three lanes and be built with curbs and gutters. Tying into the economic development theme of the industrial park access road, Day reported that ALDOT is also launching a feasibility study for a potential regional airport that would serve parts of Clarke, Choctaw, Wilcox and Marengo Counties. Of the five municipalities identified in the ALDOT study, three currently have an airport: Grove Hill, Pine Hill and Linden. Linden's airport recently lost its FAA certification and the Pine Hill and Grove Hill airports are landlocked. The FAA has also requested that Pine Hill make improvements to its airport in order to maintain its certification, something Mayor Harry Mason said the town could ill afford to do. "I believe all three airports have requested FAA funding to update, but the state and the FAA are looking at those requests and it would probably be better to put that money towards a new, expanded state of the art regional airport that could serve the needs of all of us," Day said. "They built a regional airport in St. Clair with 97 percent funding," he said. "If we could get something like that nearby, it would be a win-win-win situation. Just since this study was started, we've had contacts say it would open up more economic development opportunities for our community." The study has been funded in part by a $157,286 grant from the FAA and the state is footing the remaining amount of $8,278. Day also told the council that a recent visit and tour of the old Hilton-Simplex shirt plant by a prospective industry went well. "It's hard not to get your hopes up, but I think it went very well." In other business, the council approved the hiring of Robert Leach as a temporary laborer for the street department. Heard a report from city attorney Edmon McKinley that the city will be getting back a portion of property in the Boardwalk Cottages development to allow for city access to utilities. Approved alcohol sales licenses for Pizza Hut and Fat Daddy's. The council will hear a package store license at its next meeting. The store will be located on Wilson Avenue downtown. The licenses were approved by a 4-1 vote with council member Charles Allen voting against. Councilwoman Grace Megginson was absent. Day announced that plans for a new Alabama Power office and store were received by the city. The new building will be built on Hwy. 43 near Clark Avenue. He also reported that the downtown merchants association will hold its annual downtown stroll on Dec. 13 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
A hoist and crane company would also be locating an office in Thomasville soon, Day said.
|
for larger version       |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
