Keiser receives $200,000 grant from county

By Marcus McClain

NEA Town Courier

The city of Keiser was the first to be awarded funds through the Mississippi County Infrastructure Grant Program.

On Monday, the county announced that $200,000 through the American Rescue Plan Act will be contributed to the city’s Highway 181 Lift Station rehabilitation plan. Due to the age of the station, the city’s wastewater collection system suffers heavy fluctuation in flow during rains. This causes overflows of the existing stations.

“This has been a problem for a long time,” Keiser mayor Rick Creecy said. “It is 50 years old and this lift station is actually underground, so when it rains, it’s the last lift station before it goes to the lagoon and it shuts down the whole system. We have other issues too, but we are taking care of them one at a time.”

The county grant program will fund projects addressing the county’s infrastructure needs. Each grant awarded will provide up to $200,000 for cities/towns within the county, covering up to 75% of project costs with the remainder matched by the awarded city. Funds will be disbursed on a reimbursement basis. If a project costs exceeds a total of $250,000, the city/town would be responsible for the remaining costs.

County officials designated a total of $2,000,000 for the grant program of the $7.8 million awarded to the county through ARPA. Each city/town was eligible to receive two grants during the application process. An informative workshop was held on April 7 for city officials. The application process then closed on April 21.

The county partnered with iParametrics, a consultant company based in Georgia, to filter through applications and rank each submission. Rankings were made based on a scoring criteria from consultants recommendation and approval by the Quorum Court. Factors included, project readiness, documented support from other community organizations/partners, the ability to leverage additional funding and addressing the areas of greatest need to serve the most at-risk.

Eligible projects included land acquisitions, site preparation, road and highway improvements, environmental mitigation, ect.

Mandatory spending reviews are set for approximately one year after the funds are allocated, on June 30, 2024. All funding must be expended by June 30, 2025, and if not, it must be returned to the county.

Public Affairs director Tom Henry noted that a total of 11 grants will be announced during the coming weeks. He added that funds will be disbursed in the order of ranking in partnership with iParametrics.