Interviewee: Mayor Willie Burns
City: Washington, GA
Population: 4500
Type of Grant: Water and Sewage Filtration
Amount: $1 million
Key Insights:
- Plan ahead – Prepare now for the second round of funding
- Take time to understand the process in its entirety
- Complete the pre-application process so that you are already in the system
- Have your ‘grant writing team’ trained beforehand – Use staff members proficient in grant writing to train other members of the staff
- If staff is limited, garner help from organizations or corporations and consultants
Details:
Mayor Burns believes that planning was the key to the success. The project was already in ‘shovel ready’ state. Washington was already in the system and had been talking to the agencies for a while. In terms of grant applications, everything was ready to go.
The city made a special effort to be ready to prepare the grant application. Some members of the staff could do fundamental grant writing, and had trained other staff members to be ready on all aspects of grant writing. Having the team trained beforehand is important as you are not caught up in training during the pressure cooker of grant writing. In addition to the city staff, the City of Washington also received assistance from CSRA (Central Savannah River Area) Regional Development Corporation and a corporate engineering consultant. Being ready also meant thoroughly understanding the process, what needs to be done, and how the grant should be written. The Mayor feels that this aspect of familiarity with the process is important as well.
Mayor Burns strongly suggests that cities, especially smaller ones with limited resources, should focus on the June 1st deadline and the second round of stimulus funding. Forming the grant writing team through corporate donations or help from associations such as NCBM may be one way for smaller cities with limited resources, he adds.
