CHINA GROVE — China Grove took steps to formally progress on multiple large grant-fund projects during the town council’s meeting on Tuesday.

The first ordinance approved established a budget for a downtown revitalization project. China Grove has been allocated funds from different sources that total $1,554,999.

Mayor Rodney Phillips said that the project would span multiple fiscal years, so it was required to outline how the funds would be spent.

A breakdown of how the roughly $1.5 million would be spent was provided. 

Planning, design and permitting comprised about 12 percent at $126,787. Other expenses included roadway improvements at $294,005, and landscape and irrigation at $53,189. Some of the work is already underway. 

“We have been doing some survey work over the past few months, so if you have been downtown you would have seen surveyors and paint markings,” Phillips said. 

In coordination with the project, the city kicked off a downtown revitalization committee. Phillips indicated that the committee had about a dozen people including council and planning board members as well as some downtown merchants. 

“Their task is to start to do the planning,” Phillips said. “For the rest of the year we will be planning and prioritizing how to spend that funding and then start the construction in January of next year.

“There are several things that we identified like roadway improvements, wayfinding things, work at hanna park and signaling downtown. There is a lot in there, but the work of this committee is going to be to prioritize all those things to know how to best spend that money.”

Phillips and town councilors Arthur Heggins and Cheryl Sheets are among the names on that committee. 

Community Memorial Park project

China Grove officials similarly approved a budget ordinance for a project at Community Memorial Park.

The town was awarded grant funding with the requirement of dollar-for-dollar matching funds from the state’s Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PART-F) in the amount of $302,500. The total project cost will be $605,000. 

The capital project ordinance will allow the project to easily cross fiscal years while maintaining control and a balanced budget. The Capital Project Ordinance will remain in effect for the duration of the project.

A new concrete sidewalk, catch basin, headwall and fine grading is anticipated to cost approximately $72,000 with park structures accounting for $185,000 of the funding.

“This one is different from downtown because this is like step 3 of six or seven steps,” Phillips said. “We did a lot of work on the building recently and the playground equipment. This is like the phase 2 build out. It will be pretty exciting to further enhance that park and make it usable and accessible to anybody in town.

“The community building is there, the nice playground is used, gosh man, everybody in town uses it, people from out of town come and use it. It is evolving into, and we want it to be, a gathering place for everyone in the community.”