Long-awaited grant will help Harwood build improvements

By Ben Holman

Nevada Daily Mail

After years of applications, the village of Harwood has finally obtained a state grant for street, bridge and drainage improvements. On Friday, Steve Büttorff, Harwood clerk, visited the Daily Mail office to share the good news.

The $150,000 grant is a Missouri State Community Development Block Grant and will be used by the town to improve their city infrastructure. The money will be handed over to the Kaysinger Basin Regional Planning Commission, which will manage the funds and oversee the projects.

"We've been working on getting this grant for three years, and this year we finally got it," said Büttorff. He said that the grant was obtained through the efforts of Dick Robinson, Harwood mayor; and Thelma Robinson, Chris Garzee, Christina Garzee and Ethel Whaley, all Harwood board members; and himself. He also said that much work had been done by previous boards towards achieving the funds. Büttorff also said that Ed Mason, USDA community development manager, was also instrumental in achieving the grant funds, "he's really been doing a lot of the work."

Having achieved this grant, the Harwood board feels more confident in applying for other grants and hopes to obtain more funds soon. The town has already applied for a $12,000 USDA Rural Development Grant for an early warning system. The application for that grant is pending approval but Büttorff said he expects it to be approved. In conjunction with the early warning system, Aquila has offered to install the pole for the siren and hook up the electricity at no cost to the village. They also have said that they will cover all the electricity costs for the siren when it is used. The pole was installed on Monday. "I want to thank Aquila for all their great support," said Büttorff.

Signs are another priority for Harwood for which board members hope to receive grant money. The Harwood board hopes to obtain grant money that will help them place signs on all of the roads in town and place stop signs at intersections.

"The goal is to get everyone a physical address in anticipation of a 911 system." Büttorff said that he believes that a 911 system for the county isn't very far in the future and wants to have everything in place when the time comes.

Other project goals for Harwood over the course of the next two years include: Handicapped accessible bathrooms in the town hall and park; improvements to the town park, including new playground equipment, benches and other improvements; business incentives or tax break opportunities to attract new businesses; placement of water hydrants throughout the town and other improvements to the water supply.

"We're really playing catch-up here," said Büttorff. He said that the Harwood board wants to improve their home town and make it a better place to live for residents and also more attractive to business.