Progress continuing along the Maple Ave. corridor
♦ Sidewalk work and new homes will freshen the view between Rome and Lindale.
The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority and Rome Community Development office, while not necessarily working in a formal partnership, have each focused redevelopment efforts along the Maple Avenue corridor in recent years and the work is showing visible signs of progress.
Two new single-family homes being constructed by the NWGHA are almost complete. Framing has been completed on two duplex units on East 12th Street and work on another replacement home near the old Maple Grocery has just gotten started.
Meanwhile the Community Development office has been putting sidewalk replacement money in the Community Development Block Grant program for several years and just awarded a new contract for additional work to Spriggs Construction of Rome. Spriggs submitted the low bid of $164,765 for replacement of sidewalk between East Eighth Street and East 12th Street. As motorists head south toward Lindale, the new sidewalk will be located on the left, or east side of the road.
“We anticipate them starting sometime the first week of August,” said Rome Community Development Director Bekki Fox. She said the sidewalk in that area is pretty badly deteriorated.
“We’ll come back with 2019 funds for Phase Two, either continuing on that side of the street all the way to Brown Street, or we’ll pick up the other side of the road.”
The 2019 Community Development Block Grant budget is in a public comment period. It includes $186,407 for sidewalk improvements, which is earmarked for the Maple Avenue corridor.
“What we’re doing in the area helps what the housing authority is doing, not that we’re partnering or collaborating,” said Fox.
Rick Waters in the code enforcement office has really been focused on that whole corridor. Demolition of dilapidated housing has been at the forefront of his efforts. Several homes have come down in the last year on East 17th and East 18th streets, Crane Street and Flannery Street.
“I’ve got court orders for one on East 14th and another on Willingham Street,” Waters said.
In the meantime, the housing authority will once again seek a Choice Neighborhood planning grant of $1.3 million for the entire East RomeMaple Avenue-east 12th Street community. Should the planning grant be awarded, it would put the housing authority in line for a potential implementation grant of upwards of $30 million. the The same authority grant applied funds for on three previous occasions but has been unsuccessful each time. “We don’t give up,” Hudson said. “You have to be persistent.”