The state will not fund a proposed project to make improvements to Brantley Park in Eupora.
Mississippi Development Authority officials notified Mayor Pete Fortner in letters earlier this month of its decision not to approve two grant applications which would have developed the Gifford Street park.
One application was for a "self-help" Community Development Block Grant of $100,000 and the other was for a $250,000 Small Municipalities and Limited Population County Grant. Sunbelt Research Development Consortium prepared the grant applications.
Sam Mozee Jr., director of MDA's Community Services Division, informed Fortner in an Aug. 11 letter that the agency could not fund the self-help project as submitted. Mozee stated that this was because of a proposal to reserve an option that would allow people owing fines to work on the project and receive credit toward debt to the city.
Mozee said the MDA had determined that this proposal was not consistent with the intent of the Self-Help program spirit, which stipulates the use of "true community volunteerism."
City Clerk Lesa Hardin said that James Curtis Smith of Jackson, president of Sunbelt, had since resubmitted the self-help grant application but that it was again rejected.
Stephen Hale, MDA executive director, informed the mayor in an Aug. 15 letter that the application for the $250,000 grant did not receive approval "based upon the review and evaluation process conducted by our staff."
Fortner had vetoed a 3-2 board vote to apply for the latter grant, which aldermen later overrode. The mayor had said a grant application for a business incubator building was a more pressing need and more likely to receive approval, and also expressed concerns about the cost of maintaining the park if further developed.
Fortner informed aldermen during a special meeting last week that the grant applications had been rejected.
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