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Community Development Block Grants help communities in Illinois and other states to get the funding to complete projects that will improve the lives of community members. In an Aug. 4 Facebook post, Sen. Dale Fowler announced $10.2 million in grant funds for communities in the 59th District.

“Our rural communities and their residents deserve quality housing and the ability to access safe, sanitary water," said Fowler. "Oftentimes, these essential improvements are too much for small, local governments to shoulder." 

In an Aug. 4 news release, Fowler shared the communities and their funding from the Community Development Block Grant program for water and sewer system improvements.

Those include the City of Eldorado ($760,000): Rehabilitation of two existing rotating biological contactor units within the wastewater treatment plant. Village of Junction City ($1,500,000): Water main replacements. Village of Norris City ($1,235,550): Service Area IV water main replacements, and raw water main rehabilitation. City of Grand Tower ($1,500,000): Water main replacements. Village of Dongola ($570,000): Water system improvements. Village of Tamms ($1,427,175): Sewer system improvements.

In that same news release, he named five other communities that received Community Development Block Grants for Housing Rehabilitation. These grants are to provide assistance to low-to-moderate income homeowners with improvements to ensure safe and sanitary living conditions. 

Recipients include Village of Royalton ($650,000): Rehabilitation of 11 homes. City of West Frankfort ($650,000): Rehabilitation of 11 homes. Village of Elkville ($650,000): Rehabilitation of 11 homes. City of Herrin ($637,000): Rehabilitation of 10 homes. City of Marion ($637,000): Rehabilitation of 10 homes.

The Community Development Block Grant Program “assists Illinois communities that do not receive a HUD direct entitlement location with meeting their greatest economic and community development needs,” according to the web page for the CDBG programs through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

There are different grant opportunities – for housing rehabilitation; public infrastructures; disaster response; and economic development.

Sen. Fowler has represented the people of Illinois 59th Senate District since 2016. Prior to that, he was the mayor of Harrisburg, Ill., and served as a city commissioner. 

He participated in the Saline County Board and worked with then-Secretary of State Jim Edgar as an Office Operations Supervisor. When he’s not working in Springfield, he works as a business development officer for People’s National Bank in Harrisburg, a position he’s held since his retirement from the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice in 2012, according to his official biography.

"These grants provide a great opportunity for our downstate communities to be able to best provide for their residents and offer them a better quality of life," he said. "I’m thrilled to see that so many of our villages and towns have been announced as recipients of this important grant program.”