South Carolina Department Of Commerce Approves Community Development Block Grant Funds For City Of Seneca In Regards To Kellett Property

(Seneca, SC)———The South Carolina Department of Commerce announced yesterday that 21 South Carolina communities, including the city of Seneca, have been awarded Community Development Block Grant Funds. 

The awarded Block Grant Funds will provide Seneca $500,000 for the demolition of the old J.N. Kellett Elementary School. The population of the communities statewide receiving the grants represents around 43,000 residents. 

Seneca City Administrator Scott Moulder said that the city was excited that they were awarded the grant and that the city has been awaiting the outcome of the grant application for some months. 

“The grant is intended as part of their slime and blight program to remove the Kellett school by way of demolition,” says Moulder. “It’s an old abandoned school thats been there years and years.” 

Moulder said the focus from the city has been what is the intent of the school building and what to use the property for in regards to not only how to use the property to benefit those who live in the immediate community as well as the community at large. 

Moulder said the grant money will be used to defray the city’s cost for the demolition and removal of the building. In the end, according to Moulder, the property will be used as a green space for passive recreation opportunities as the city looks ahead to more permanent plans to redevelopment the property into a community facility. 

The grants awarded to the 21 communities totals $7 million dollars and the grant funds are awarded in the fall and spring of each year. Local governments receiving the grants are required to provide at least a 10 percent match in funding to complete the projects. 

The total budget costs for the demolition and removal costs as well as environmental mitigation and abatement is around $600,000.