- Community leader Earl Williams says Senators Ossoff and Warnock, along with Congressman Bishop, are advocating to restore the grant.
- A public meeting will be held at the Thomas County Library on June 2 to discuss the grant’s impact and next steps.
- Watch the video to hear from residents like Deborah Adams Oneal who say the funding is essential to fix aging homes, improve safety, and revitalize neighborhoods.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
After I first reported on Thomasville losing $19.8 million in environmental funding, community members and lawmakers started stepping up.
I'm tracking how that momentum is building and what could come next.
"We reached out to our U.S. Congressman from the 2nd District, Sanford Bishop, we reached out to both of our Senators, Senator Ossoff and also Senator Warnock, and all three of them and some others have actually taken to the streets and they are advocating for Thomasville," said Earl Williams, from Thomasville Community Development Corporation.
That push helped spark national attention.
After that call with Senator Ossoff, the EPA administrator was pressed directly about the grant, and the video spread fast across social media and TV.
"Everything that I fed to him, he brought it back to me back out. He made it his own, and I felt like, you know, that's an example of government and politics working the right way," said Williams.
And the calls to fight back aren't slowing down.
I spoke with one neighbor who says this momentum needs to keep going.
"I would want them to rethink the decision that they made, because I think that all people are entitled to live in decent housing. All people deserve to live in neighborhoods that they feel safe, that people can come out and sit on their porch and enjoy the weather, or enjoy the neighbors that they have. And so when grants like this that we thought that we had secured are taken back, then those things probably will not happen, or they will be delayed," said Oneal.
Deborah Adams Oneal has lived on Wright Street for decades.
She says all neighborhoods in Thomasville should get the same investment and care.
"When you talk about providing air conditioning and central heating air for homes, that is a big price ticket. And a lot of those people will not be able to afford that. When you talk about fixing roofs, that is also a large ticket. If those two things on houses could be repaired or redone, then I think the house would be livable. People would migrate back to the neighborhoods," said Oneal.
Williams says these changes can lift up the whole city.
"If we make these neighborhoods better, more resilient, Thomasville will be better and more resilient," said Williams.
Mr. Williams says there will be a meeting at the Thomas County Library on June 2nd at 6 p.m. to talk about what the EPA grant means for Thomasville and why the community still needs it.
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