The City of Hattiesburg has applied for more than $4 million in grant funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Transit Administration to help with the city’s fire department, police department and infrastructure.
The first grant would be from the FTA’s Fiscal Year 2020 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Program and would fund sidewalks, Americans With Disabilities Act accessibility features, crosswalks and pedestrian signals at selected bus stop locations around the city. The estimated project cost is $2.616 million with a $1.831 million federal share and a $784,800 local share.
The project is part of the city’s resolution to commit to utilizing surplus revenue from the 1-percent tax increase instituted last year for sidewalk construction. Up to $400,000 across four years of that surplus revenue will be committed to the project.
“Any time we can go after grants that are going to allow us to add more sidewalks or crosswalks, or allow us to enhance the quality of life for walkability in our city, we’re going to do that,” said Samantha McCain, the city’s chief communications officer. “So that’s just an example of that.
“There aren’t any specific projects geared just for that right now, but it will help extend the funding for additional sidewalks throughout our city in the future.”
The grant from FEMA would be a part of the Fiscal Year 2019 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. The funds would be used for the purchase of an aerial apparatus for an estimated cost of $1.045 million with a $950,000 federal share and a $95,000 local share.
The Hattiesburg Fire Department currently has a 1999 Pierce aerial ladder in its reserve fleet, but the grant application describes that truck as in very poor condition and unreliable.
“That (grant) is to go toward placing one of our ladder trucks,” McCain said. “Every so often we have to replace our fleet, and this is just one additional way for us to apply for funding that will help pay for that. It is not to buy an additional (truck) – it is to replace.”
The grant from the U.S. DOJ would come from that organization’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program and would fund the hiring of four additional police officers at the Hattiesburg Police Department. The estimated three-year project cost is $653,349 with a $488,499 federal share and a $164,850 local share.
According to the grant application, crime rates, trends, locations and community feedback would be considered in determining neighborhood concern. Officers would then be assigned to neighborhoods based on an analysis of those factors in determining the areas with the highest need of attention.
Officers would focus on school truancy, community meetings in high-risk areas and identifying new gang trends involving youth. The officers assigned to specialize in youth gang activity also would be involved with the Police Athletic League, an HPD youth crime prevention program that targets youth ages 13-17 and uses educational, athletic and recreational activities to encourage trust and understanding between police officers and youth.
“It’s one of the things we apply for every year, and that goes toward community relations,” McCain said. “It’s standard, and it helps supplement the pay of at least four of our officers.”
