Grants to help Fayetteville, Robeson County schools recover from Hurricane Matthew

Oct. 09--The board of the North Carolina Golden LEAF Foundation on Thursday awarded more than $3 million in grants for projects in Robeson and Cumberland counties to help with the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Matthew.

This includes $2.6 million for the Public Schools of Robeson County, Golden LEAF President Dan Gerlach said, to replace equipment and vehicles, including activity buses, that were damaged or destroyed as a result of the flooding at the school system's central office.

Insurance and allocations from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were insufficient to replace these items, Gerlach said.

Another grant of $405,395 was awarded to the Pine Terrace Fire Department $405,395 to help the department replace its fire station building, equipment, a fire truck and rescue vehicle. These were destroyed in the hurricane's floodwaters, Gerlach said.

Fayetteville was awarded a grant of $275,822 to help pay for the stabilization of the bank of Cross Creek, Gerlach said. The creek was damaged by flooding.

The money for these grants is from the Disaster Recovery Act of 2017. This law allocated $30 million to the Golden LEAF Foundation to distribute to communities that need help as they rebuild from Hurricane Matthew.

Staff writer Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@fayobserver.com, 486-3512 and 261-4710.

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