Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Mayor Woody Collins announced that the City of Demopolis has been awarded an $800,000 grant to improve downtown sidewalks. The money comes from the Transportation Alternative Practices grant and Collins made the announcement during the Sept. 21 City Council meeting.

“The grant will not cover all of downtown, but I am still very excited about it. It’s going to be a big deal,” said Collins.

Main Street President Sean Parker also expressed his excitement for the grant and said the funding is a big step forward for Main Street Demopolis.

“It’s amazing. That’s the kind of thing that having a mainstream Main Street project in Demopolis can do,” said Parker. “That is a big time. The sidewalks all need to be repaved and the lighting all needs to be redone. I’d love to see what Demopolis is going to look like in 10 years if we keep hammering away like we’re doing now.”

Collins said the city is using the same engineering fund that the Water Department uses and he hopes they will be able to work together to cut costs on the project.

A start date for the project has not yet been determined.