Grady benefits from $500,000 grant

Grady County got a $500,000 slice of an $8.3 million pie served up Monday by the OneGeorgia Authority Board, which met at Southwest Georgia Technical College in Thomasville.
Governor Sonny Perdue, who serves as the chairman of the board, was on hand to make presentations to officials from 18 Georgia communities including Grady County.
The Grady County Joint Development Authority made application for and was awarded a $500,000 Equity Grant to assist with the cost of acquiring 175 acres to expand the existing 179-acre Milestone Industrial Park.
JDA officials say the grant funds will be used to help retire the debt on the land purchase which was funded jointly by the city of Cairo (60%) and Grady County (40%).
Since purchasing the additional property, the JDA has been successful in attracting Performance Food Service/Powell, which employs approximately 115 people, to Grady County.
In addition to helping fund the land acquisition, the city has invested approximately $1 million to expand water, sewer, electricity and natural gas extensions to the expanded industrial park.
The OneGeorgia Authority was created utilizing one-third of the state’s tobacco settlement to assist the state’s most economically challenged areas. OneGeorgia is expected to receive about $1.6 billion over the 25-year term of the settlement. Since inception, OneGeorgia has made 458 awards totaling $251 million leveraged against total project investment of $5 billion to help retain or create 45,000 jobs.