House OKs millions for local projects; Claflin, S.C. State, Lake Marion system could receive funds

Those projects include renovating the former Kress building in downtown Orangeburg and extending the reach of the Lake Marion Regional Water Agency.

“This legislation will enable the federal government to better serve the American people. This bill makes significant investments in low-income and middle-class communities that have been devastated in the last year and will create jobs and economic opportunity,” Clyburn said in a release.

“I am pleased that nine of my community project funding requests were included in this legislation that will invest in critical priorities while targeting many of those investments in persistent poverty communities. These projects are essential to the communities I serve, and I will keep fighting to get them enacted into law,” he said.

The House passed its $600 billion spending bill on Thursday. The Senate is working on its own spending plan.

Clyburn noted the House bill funds priorities such as broadband internet, health care, transportation, housing, historic preservation and the “10-20-30” initiative to target resources to communities in need.

T&D Region projects included in the House bill include:

• Lake Marion Regional Water Agency: $19.8 million for the Orangeburg-Berkeley reach, which would provide water to the U.S. Highway 178 corridor in Orangeburg and Berkeley counties in the Camp Hall area.

Clyburn’s budget request calls it, “a key part of a large, regional and strategic infrastructure improvement effort designed to improve human and environmental conditions in the region and enhance the local, state and national economies.”

• Claflin University: $3 million to rehabilitate the S.H. Kress building on Memorial Plaza in downtown Orangeburg and turn it into the Claflin University Downtown Community Center.

“The restored building will be used to house the Claflin University Center for Social Justice, Pathway from Prison program, young professionals’ studio housing and development of a business incubator site,” according to the budget request.

• South Carolina State University: $3 million for a Small Business Research and Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute.

The request describes it as “implementation of a research and entrepreneurial training program to enhance small business sustainability and strengthen the survival rate for small businesses in the Orangeburg community.”

• Denmark Technical College: $3 million for “two campus industrial buildings, the replacement of wastewater lift stations on campus, the replacement of building doors throughout the campus to support ADA compliance.”

The project request is titled, “Putting the tech back in Denmark Tach: Enhancing 61-year-old facilities to provide transformational career and technical education programs.”

• Greater St. George Wastewater Project: $3 million for “construction of three new water pumps and a new force main to extend wastewater infrastructure to an area not currently served by a public utility.”