Prattville Secures $500,000 CDBG for College Heights Sewer, Road Repairs

Prattville announced that it secured a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, with the award detailed in a city press release dated February 13, 2026. The grant will fund sanitary sewer rehabilitation and roadway resurfacing in the College Heights area of District 2, city officials said.

The sewer work specified in the press release calls for rehabilitation of approximately 264 linear feet of manhole linings across 33 manholes within College Heights. The city positioned the rehabilitation as a continuation of infrastructure work in the neighborhood, referencing earlier projects including the 2021 sewer and stormwater improvements on Easy Street and prior stormwater upgrades on Bunche Avenue.

Roadway improvements under the grant will resurface roughly 1.65 miles of streets. Prattville’s project list names Meharry Street, Howard Street, Fisk Street, Isom Street, Dillard Street, Tuskegee Street, Carver Street, Bunche Avenue, and Wilberforce Avenue as targeted for resurfacing, according to the February 13 press release.

Financial details from council records show the CDBG award was the outcome of a program-year 2025 application the council authorized on July 1, 2025. That July 1 resolution, introduced by Councilor Jackson and adopted by voice vote, committed a conditional local match of $204,235 should ADECA fund the project and empowered the mayor to execute required grant documents. The same resolution affirmed the city will be responsible for long-term operation and maintenance costs if the project proceeds.

The city’s public process began with a May 27, 2025 public hearing that identified high concentrations of low-to-moderate-income residents in College Heights and described the project scope to ADECA, according to council reporting. ADECA administers CDBG funds made available by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through a competitive allocation process, a framework Prattville cited in its award announcement.

Mayor Bill Gillespie thanked ADECA leadership and linked the award to prior local projects in the official release, saying, “We sincerely thank ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell for this grant allocation, and I am grateful to everyone who contributed to developing a strong and competitive application. This project builds on the City’s 2021 sewer and stormwater improvements on Easy Street and the stormwater upgrades on Bunche Avenue, further strengthening infrastructure in the surrounding area. This CDBG funding will play a vital role in advancing critical infrastructure improvements and public services in District 2.” In a separate WCOV interview, Gillespie noted the city had faced prior application rejections, saying, “Recently, over the last numerous years, we’ve been turned down on a lot of them but we’re looking to go into a CBDG block grant for the city of Prattville to improve some of our pavings, some of our sewer manhole covers.”

Next steps outlined by city reporting require Prattville staff to finalize project engineering, procure contractors consistent with state procurement rules, and ensure the $204,235 local match is budgeted now that the award has been announced. For follow-up or media inquiries, the press release lists Dawn J. Russell, Mayor’s Interim Executive Assistant, at Prattville City Hall, 101 West Main Street, Prattville, AL 36067, office 334.595.0102 and cell 334.314.8296.