FINDING FUNDING
With its high unemployment rate and low median income,
the City of Palatka, Florida, has relied on grants and
financial assistance to help fund key projects.
“Every time he meets with us, we’re in the same place,”
longtime City Commissioner Mary Lawson Brown said,
referring to engineer David Kemp, manager of Ayres
Associates’ Jacksonville office. “I’m not being funny. Every
time he meets with us, if we’ve got a project going we
never have the money.”
As such, she said Kemp has had to be “innovative in his
thinking on how to get us from Point A to Point B.”
“It’s not always a straight line,” she said. “He understands
that so when we talk to him, he realizes that it may be
just a little bit more than doing the engineering part. He
partners with us.”
As such, the City and Ayres have worked collaboratively to
secure millions of dollars in grants, including the following:
YEAR
AWARDED
GRANT
AGENCY
2006
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
$1 million
WWTP upgrades
St. Johns River Water Management District
$3.7 million
Reclaimed water and distribution
system
2009
Community Development Block Grant
$690,000
Dunham Street water main
extension/improvements
2010
Florida Energy and Climate Commission
$1.24 million
WWTP aeration system
improvements
2010
Hazard Mitigation Grant (FEMA)
$400,000
St. Johns Avenue/15th Street
drainage improvements
2007-2012
18│TRENDS
AMOUNT
OF AWARD
USE
PERSPECTIVES
The St. Johns River, an iconic northeast Florida waterway
with economic and historical significance for Palatka, is
shown in the background.
NEW VPs ANNOUNCED
Disa Wahlstrand, manager of the municipal
services group in our Eau Claire office
since 2005, was named vic