Duplin County commissioners approved a request on Sept. 2 to schedule a second public hearing on Oct. 6 so the county can complete an application for the North Carolina Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) neighborhood revitalization program. The motion to schedule the hearing was moved by Commissioner Branch and seconded by Commissioner Garner and carried unanimously.

Chris Hatcher, presenting on the county’s behalf, said housing must be part of the application and that the maximum award a locality can receive in this round is $950,000. He told the board the state program has approximately $12 million available statewide and that the county’s eligible activities include housing rehabilitation, demolition and rebuilding of owner-occupied homes, infrastructure tied to housing such as utilities and streets, and public facilities. Hatcher also said homes included in the application must be owner-occupied and that mobile homes are eligible only if they are on a permanent foundation, per NC Commerce requirements.

Hatcher said the county had about 24 candidate homes under review for this round and that he received 18 more applications shortly before the meeting. He said the county is already administering two existing neighborhood revitalization (NR) grants totaling roughly $950,000 each, for about $1.9 million in active NR funds.

By scheduling the Oct. 6 hearing, the county meets internal timelines needed to prepare the application before the program’s Oct. 29 deadline, Hatcher said. Commissioners voted to hold the required second public hearing and directed staff to proceed with the CDBG application process.

Next steps: staff will continue reviewing candidate properties and hold the Oct. 6 public hearing prior to submitting an application by Oct. 29.