Carbondale receives two grants to improve the city
CARBONDALE, Ill. (KBSI) – The city of Carbondale will receive half a million dollars in grant money from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO).
The grant is part of a 22.5-million-dollar investment from the DECEO for nearly 90 local tourism festivals and attractions across the state.
In Carbondale, the money will go to the city’s Superblock.
Carbondale City Manager Gary Williams says the grant will allow them to make several needed upgrades.
“In the middle of all that there’ll be bleachers you know scattered throughout the facility and then the sidewalks improvements will benefit the baseball fields but more importantly the soccer field there’s currently no access at all to the soccer field so we’re going to have to you know relay that out,” said Williams.
Along with the DECEO grant, Carbondale was awarded a grant from the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program.
The money will be used to improve and extend Piles Fork Greenway.
“Funds will allow us to completely reconstruct that entire corridor and we’ll also be able to extend it from where it currently ends on walnut street down to Lewis,” said Williams.
City leaders plan to make the multi-use trail safer and more accessible.
“I think with overall we’ve been really successful in the last few years of securing grants for the community and the real benefit to that is to our residents’ right taxpayers anytime we can secure funds that that pay for a substantial part of these types of improvements it just frees up money to do other things that are needed in the community,” said Williams.
Other stories related to this article: City of Carbondale receives more than $800K to improve Piles Fork Greenway – KBSI Fox 23 Cape Girardeau News | Paducah News (kbsi23.com).
