By John Howell
Como has been selected to receive a $150,000 Small Municipalities Grant for work on Elder Frank Ward Street, Jeff Walters said Tuesday.

Walters, a North Delta Planning and Development District (NDPDD) program specialist met with town officials at their monthly meeting to review recent and pending grant applications.
Como aldermen voted unanimously to allow Cook Coggin Engineers to perform the engineering required for the project. Mayor Everette Hill said that he recommended the firm since they had performed the preliminary engineering in preparing the grant application. The firm is Como’s city engineer.

The project will be a “street makeover,” said Jack Farmer, engineer for Cook Coggins.
Walters said that he will review the application for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) that was not funded.

Como had applied for a $450,000 CDBG to fund sewer improvements. Mayor Hill had announced last month that the grant had not been funded for this year.

“Once everything is finalized with the state, … we will go down and sit with the state and go through the rating scale to figure out where the application scored in each category and why,” Walters continued. “Once we’ve done that I’ll bring that back to the town and let you know in detail why it wasn’t funded and what we can do next year.”

Como’s application for a $5,000 Justice Assistance Grant was successful, Walters said. The grant will provide 75 percent of the total with 25 percent from the town. The money will be used to purchase police department equipment.

Review for an application for a grant from Delta Regional Authority has not been completed, Walters said.

At Walters’ request Aldermen approved an affirmative marketing plan and other technical details required for a Mississippi Development Authority Home Grants application.

If the application is successful up to five eligible families could receive grants to build new homes, Walters said.