THIS STORY IS PRESENTED IN PART BY DRAKE DENTISTRY

Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen provided WIZS with the following summary of the County’s recent award of a $15,000 grant to remove abandoned mobile homes:

The County applied for a grant through the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service which is under the State’s Department of Environmental Quality. We applied for $40,000 and were awarded $15,000.

This program has been on our radar since our first two iterations with it in 2010 and 2016. Our Board mentioned an interest in the program during their retreat last year in January and, once the funding was finalized in this year’s state budget, we had our Solid Waste Department prepare the application.

The funds will come to the County and is for the deconstruction, removal and disposal of abandoned mobile homes. We believe these funds, coupled with our matching requirement of $7,500 and with the participation fee, will remove approximately 10 units.

We will choose which units to address based upon a first-come-first-serve interest from property owners. First, we will inspect the unit to ensure it is abandoned and in a condition where it should be removed, and then we will handle the selection of a contractor to complete the work.

This program has been very satisfying because it gets right at beautifying our community. When we received the funding in 2010, there were multiple highly visible units that were removed. I recall one instance on NC 39 North where two abandoned mobile homes were right along the roadway, and every time folks traveled to the lake it was a visible blight. We are hoping this latest round of funding will allow us to identify and work with property owners to do the same.

For more information about the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service’s Abandoned Manufactured Homes (AMH) Grant Program, please click here.