JACKSON — Northampton County has moved even closer to spending $2 million from the Golden LEAF’s Community Assistance Initiative.

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Tuesday evening the 12-member review team narrowed 25 proposals worth about $6 million down to 10 proposals totaling $3.8 million.

“They got an interesting mix of proposals,” said Dan Gerlach, president of the Golden LEAF.

The 10 proposals are:

• Lake Gaston Community Center, Upfit of the Lake Gaston Community Center for Expanded Community Services, $242,700

• Northampton County, Northampton County Library Renovation and Addition, $542,378

• Northampton County Economic Development Commission, Economic Assistance Resource Network, $317,011

• Northampton County Economic Development Commission, NCCAR, $294,498

• Northampton County Economic Development Commission, Northampton Commerce Park Infrastructure Improvements, $312, 493

• Northampton County Economic Development Commission, Tri-County and Halifax-Northampton Regional Airports Infrastructure Improvements, $63,500

• Northampton County Schools, KIPP Gaston College Prep/Northampton County Schools Achievement Challenge, $1,186,000

• Northampton County Schools, Rich Square WS Creecy Career Training and Community Center, $626,400

• Roanoke Economic Development Inc., Northeast Buyer Supplier Network, $170,000

• Uhuru Economic Development Corporation, Entrepreneurial Empowerment Project, $83,125

“I was very impressed by the 12 people,” he said. “They want to do right by the county.”

Geneva Squire was selected to serve as chair of the review team.

Members of the review team had read the 25 proposals submitted. The proposals were scored on a variety of criteria including the potential to reach the most people, the potential to achieve desired results, the sustainability of the project, leverage of other resources, partner support and the extent to which the project is related to one of the key issue areas and goals that the participants in the process had targeted. 

Review team members did not rank proposals where they had a conflict of interest.

Gerlach said representatives of the 10 proposals will be invited to a meeting on Wednesday, March 17, at 6 p.m. The location will be announced.

At this meeting, those representatives will make brief presentations and answer questions from the review team. This will narrow the list further to get it closer to the Golden LEAF reserve of $2 million.

He shared, “The intent is to narrow the list and perhaps identify ways to reduce the costs of the proposals while still having an impact.”