Harrisburg secures largest grant funding in town history

HARRISBURG, N.C. (WBTV) - The Town of Harrisburg has received its largest ever grant funding, according to a news release. The money will be used for two major road projects.

In September 2022, The Town of Harrisburg sought state and federal funding via the Cabarrus-Rowan Metropolitan Planning Organization (CRMPO) for two road projects: Highway 49 Corridor Improvements and Caldwell Road Extension. Town staff prepared grant applications and presented the projects, totaling $15.3 million, to the CRMPO. The Town is elated to share that both requests were approved and $12.3 million – the largest award in Town history - was granted to the Town for these road projects. The Town is funding the remaining $3 million to provide the 20% local match that is required for these transportation grants.

The Town’s initiative for seeking state and federal funding has been a lengthy process, spanning over five years. Town Council actively supported and encouraged staff to seek grant funding opportunities. Town staff worked diligently to identify impactful and “shovel ready” projects. The Highway 49 Corridor Improvements and Caldwell Road Extension were able to be successfully funded due to broad community support of the 2017 Transportation Bond funding and Town Council’s encouragement for preliminary engineering and planning studies of Caldwell Road and the Highway 49 Corridor.

The Town saw the need to increase taxes this year to invest six cents towards public safety by expansion of The Harrisburg Division of The Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Department and two cents to infrastructure expansion. The two-cent increase will generate three million dollars over the next five years.

Harrisburg’s Town Manager, Rob Donham, shared, “We are fortunate to have such great support of our community and Town Council. Due to having extremely capable staff, we were able to quickly secure these grants after making the tough budget decisions this year. A priority of ours is to diversify our revenue sources beyond just property and sales taxes. If we were to equate a one-year tax rate for just these two grants, it would be nearly forty-one cents, which is close to our entire fiscal year 2023 tax rate. By taking the two-cent increase and leveraging it, we can now fund these large impactful projects, and we don’t have to go to the residents of Harrisburg to pay for 80% of these types of projects. That’s a big deal and we want to celebrate that!”

Town of Harrisburg’s Highway 49 Corridor Plan

Caldwell Road Extension Feasibility Study

The Town looks forward to seeing these projects come to fruition and the positive impact they will have on Harrisburg.

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