The Appalachian Regional Commission has awarded the City of Cornelia with a $1 million dollar grant to help fund the construction of the city’s new amphitheater.
The grant is a 50/50 matching reimbursement given to local governments when a project aligns with the priorities in the local, state, and federal strategic plans that directly impact economic development in the Appalachian Region.
The city wrote the grant in partnership with the Georgia Mountain Regional Commission. In order to receive funding, the amphitheater had to be included as a goal to build community capacity in the city’s Comprehensive Plan. The application was then submitted to Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs to ensure that the project meets criteria for economic development and job creation in the state of Georgia’s Development Plan.
Once approved, the application moved to the Appalachian Regional Commission in Washington D.C. to confirm that the project met local and state goals, as well as met the goals stated in the federal Strategic Plan.
“We have discussed several other projects that were eligible but weren’t competitive enough for a federal grant like this,” Community Development Director Jessie Owensby, said in a release. “but the amphitheater project was a perfect fit.”
The two-phase project is now set to go under environmental review, with construction to begin once the review is finalized.
“It takes a lot of hard work, effort, and collaboration to obtain the funding for these kinds of projects,” Owensby said. “Though locally we know how impactful capital improvements and infrastructure can be for a small community like ours, we must create a vision, tell our story, and show people who have never been in Cornelia how important a project like this is to the viability and economic growth of our entire region. To know that we have succeeded in those efforts is a welcome relief.”
The Appalachian Regional Commission is an economic development partnership among thirteen states and the federal government providing financial investment to support community and economic development initiatives in Georgia’s 37 of the 423 county Appalachian region.
Created in 1965, the commission aims to strengthen Applachian communities by creating jobs and investing in communities.
