According to Santa Rosa County Commissioner Rob Williamson, the Treasury Department has approved the RESTORE Multiyear Implementation Plan that the county submitted in January, which means 14 county projects that will be funded through the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Recovery should start breaking ground pretty soon now that the money has the potential of flowing in quicker than anticipated.
“It means we can immediately request the funds,” Williamson told a South Santa Rosa News reporter Tuesday night.
The county’s RESTORE council selected 15 projects, which they believed would benefit the county the most. Fourteen of those projects ultimately made the cut and were and submitted to the Treasury Department earlier this year. The one that was ultimately pulled from the list was the entrepreneurship academy at Pace High School submitted by the Santa Rosa County School District, which dropped off due to an eligibility issue.
In a letter dated May 16 to Williamson from Laurie McGilvray, Program Director at the Office of Gulf Coast Restoration, it states that the 14 projects were accepted by the Treasury Department and that the estimated costs for those projects is $3,712,355.
Now that the plans have been approved, the county must start the grant process before they start seeing any of the funds. And each of those 14 grants will have to be OK’d by the county prior to submittal, and then approved by the Treasury Department.
“The county can begin to submit applications through GrantSolutions.gov for Direct Component funding to support the activities included in the accepted Multi-year Plan,” the letter from McGilvray read.
Even with the latest approval from the Treasury Department, the letter went on to read that their acceptance of the Multiyear Plan is not a final determination of the eligibility of the projects. The Treasury Department will still have to approve the grant applications to determine whether they comply with the RESTORE Act.
The projects include:
– Funding for the Gulf Coast Discovery Center Phase I (Navarre Beach)
– Dirt road paving in Districts 1,4,5
– An Oyster habitat restoration project
– Driftwood, Navy Cove and Berry Stormwater Improvements (in the City of Gulf Breeze)
– Outfall treatment for Eufaula (City of Gulf Breeze)
– Funding for Quinn Street Marina: Phase I
– Yellow River Marsh Preserve State Park restoration
– Funding for the Second Chance Outreach re-entry and education development and job skills training program
– Blackwater Heritage Trail infrastructure improvements
– Funding for a Post Secondary Career and Tech Education Program at Locklin Tech
– Floridatown water quality improvements
– Funding for the Navarre Park Water Quality Enhancement Program (Navarre)
– Funding for a Rattlesnake Bluff Road Sedimentation reduction project
– Funding for the Gulf Coast Kiln Walk Society Historical Working Center
