A bill approved by the U.S. House contains money for local projects, including a new ROTC building at South Carolina State University, Orangeburg’s Railroad Corner revitalization effort and the Lake Marion Regional Water System.
Sixth District Congressman Jim Clyburn announced he secured nearly $28 million for nine community projects across South Carolina as part of the minibus appropriations bill.
Passage of the bill in the House is just the first step, according to Clyburn District Press Secretary Brandon Hernandez.
“It needs to still be passed by the Senate, and then the president has to sign it. So this is only the House passage of this piece of legislation. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens on the Senate side,” Hernandez said.
The bill includes $703,256 for the City of Orangeburg’s redevelopment of Railroad Corner.
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More specifically, the money is targeted for rehabilitation of the historic State Theater on Boulevard Street near downtown Orangeburg.
The rehabilitated facility is slated to house a civil rights museum that will serve as a centerpiece of Orangeburg’s Railroad Corner redevelopment.
“This is great. This will be very helpful, and I cannot express how thankful we are to Congressman Clyburn for his efforts. He has certainly always been a champion of South Carolina and the City of Orangeburg and our HBCUs,” Orangeburg City Administrator Sidney Evering said.
The administrator continued, “This will be very helpful in helping the Civil Rights museum come to fruition. We’re just very grateful on behalf of the City of Orangeburg and City Council. Obviously, the Railroad Corner project is a significant project. It is an anchor project for our downtown revitalization efforts.”
Evering said the museum will be of a great benefit to the city and state.
Orangeburg photographer Cecil Williams “is one of the preeminent, if the not the most preeminent, civil rights photographers in the country, and to have his museum at the Railroad Corner and have it there for generations to come and for visitors is a great benefit,” the administrator said.
Other local projects include:
• South Carolina State University ROTC Training Center, $4 million
• Water infrastructure project (Orangeburg-Berkeley reach) to provide water to the U.S. Highway 176 corridor in Orangeburg County and Berkeley County in the Camp Hall area, $10,511,000.
Also included in the bill is the following:
• $5.385 million for the African American Civil Rights Network, of which $3.4 million is to support the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina, and an additional $26.75 million is for historic preservation of sites and stories related to the civil rights movement.
• $33 million for the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission to promote economic development in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
• $560 million to expand high-speed broadband service and improve education and telehealth. This includes an additional $450 million for the ReConnect program, which has already helped more than 297,000 households get connected. These funds are in addition to the $65 billion for affordable, high-speed broadband service included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• $20 million for legal assistance for tenants facing eviction, which is modeled after legislation Clyburn introduced in 2020.
• $11.5 million for the Rural Energy Savings Program, an initiative originally introduced by C Clyburn in 2010 for energy efficiency improvements in rural areas.
• $10 million for HBCU Historic Preservation, the full amount of funds authorized at Clyburn’s request, which was included in the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act in 2019. Grantees are not required to provide matching funds.
• $5 million for South Carolina HBCUs to support the pit production mission at the Savannah River Site.
• Nearly $1.6 billion for the Savannah River Site, including full funding for payment in lieu of taxes to provide critical funding for schools, emergency services, and county operations in Aiken, Allendale and Barnwell counties.
Contact the writer: dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5534. Follow “Good News with Gleaton” on Twitter at @DionneTandD
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