Southport Receives Golden LEAF Disaster Recovery Open Grant

Southport Water Tower

Southport Receives Golden LEAF Disaster Recovery Open Grant

Recently, the Golden LEAF Board of Directors voted to invest in 13 Disaster Recovery projects, totaling $3.5 million to serve communities affected by Hurricane Florence. The North Carolina counties supported by these awards include Brunswick, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Jones, Onslow, Pamlico and Robeson counties.  The City of Southport will be the recipient of $990,000 in Golden LEAF Disaster Recovery funding to replace and repair the sewer infrastructure on Howe Street.

Bruce Oakley, Southport City Manager, acknowledges how beneficial the Golden LEAF grant will be for the City of Southport.  “We are grateful to the Golden LEAF Foundation for the grant and the assistance provided by their staff during the application process. The money will be instrumental in repairing damaged infrastructure from Hurricane Florence and will help make it more resilient during future storms.”

“Golden LEAF is dedicated to the long-term economic advancement of North Carolina,” said Scott T. Hamilton, Golden LEAF President, Chief Executive Officer. “Our Board and staff work hard to get funding out the door and at work in the communities we serve.”

About Golden LEAF

The Golden LEAF Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1999 to receive a portion of North Carolina’s funding received from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with cigarette manufacturers. For 20 years, Golden LEAF has worked to increase economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural and tobacco-dependent communities through leadership in grantmaking, collaboration, innovation, and stewardship as an independent and perpetual foundation.

The Foundation has provided lasting impact to tobacco-dependent, economically distressed and rural areas of the state by helping create 64,000 jobs, over half a billion dollars in new payrolls and more than 77,000 workers trained or retrained for higher wages.

To learn more about the Golden LEAF Foundation, visit www.goldenleaf.org.