By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal

The Delta Regional Authority is providing $300,000 funds to Fort Deposit and $15,000 to Mosses a part of a new investment of resources aimed at Delta small business owners, entrepreneurs, families, and communities designed to grow the region’s economy.

Delta Regional Authority (DRA) and Alabama Governor Robert Bentley announced the investments in a press conference held last Thursday.

According to DRA, among the new investments are $300,000 to the town of Fort Deposit for industrial access improvements, which are improvements to an industrial access road to serve a new industry locating in the community.

Spencer Lucker of the DRA Press Office said the funds would be administered by the South Central Regional Development Commission in coordination with the town of Fort Deposit toward a total project cost of $490,486.

DRA reported the project would create 150 jobs.

For Deposit Mayor Fletcher Fountain said the funding is for a portion of a project that is in the developmental stages to move a company into the old Cummings Sign Company building. ”It’s good for the town. If this project comes to fruition,” Fountain said, “it is supposed to bring in up to 300 jobs to Fort Deposit over a period a time.”

He called the award by DRA “great” and “much needed,” He also said the town has received a waiver for matching funds.

Also included among the new investments is a $15,000 grant to Mosses for expansion of municipal sewer services to approximately 67 houses and 165 low-income families.

Mosses Mayor Walter S. Hill said all of the due diligence has been put in place for his town’s project. He said, “It will further enhance our efforts to provide sewer hookup to the residents of mosses” and over the next two years, the goal is “to have every household connected to Mosses sewer system.”
He said the project should begin a few weeks.

According to DRA, five new investments coming directly to the Alabama Black Belt, from advanced workforce training to purchasing land that will support current and future business development, leverage $829,248 in federal resources to help create nearly 500 permanent jobs and more than 1,000 temporary construction jobs, train a skilled workforce, and improve public infrastructure for the Delta region, its people, and its future.

According to the DRA, the awards are provided through the DRA States’ Economic Development Assistance Program. The DRA coordinates directly with the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) for program funding implementation within Alabama.

Chris Masingill, DRA federal co-chairman, said, “Working to grow the economy, develop a skilled workforce, and create jobs is our number one commitment to the people of the Delta. These investments continue our commitment to building communities and improving the lives of people in the Delta region.”

Bentley said, “Alabama’s partnership with the Delta Regional Authority continues to pay dividends by supporting economic growth in areas where it is needed the most. Encouraging job creation across the state is the top priority of my administration, and it is especially gratifying to see new jobs coming to the Black Belt Region.”

The DRA is a federal-state partnership that is congressionally mandated to identify and provide investment to help grow the small business and entrepreneurial community in the 252 counties and parishes of the Delta.

In twelve project cycles, the Authority has leveraged more than $2.7 billion in public and private investment into DRA projects that are helping to create and retain more than 41,000 jobs, train nearly 30,000 workers, and afford more than 69,000 families access to clean water and sewer service.