Troy partners with Home Depot to assist veterans

The city of Troy was recently awarded a grant worth $3,000 from The Home Depot Foundation. The money received will be used to upgrade the property of veterans living in the city of Troy. It’s just one of many things Mayor Darren Coldwell is working on to improve the City of Troy.

“I was looking for something to help improve people’s property in the community,” Coldwell said. “People do the best they can, but sometimes they just don’t have the budget for it. Like any other grant it’s time consuming, but it was worth the time and effort.”

The Home Depot Foundation (THDF) Veteran Housing Grants Program awards grants to nonprofit organizations for the development and repair of veterans’ housing.

For veterans interested in upgrading their home they must send a letter of interest that will be reviewed by Coldwell and the Troy VFW commander.

“For veterans living within Troy city limits please send a letter of interest to the City of Troy, P.O. Box 823,” Coldwell said. “The commander of the VFW and I will review the letters. They have until August 14 to get their letters submitted.”

Coldwell said they hope to do a number of projects, but acknowledged the limitations of the funding.

“We hope to make an impact on a number of homes within the community,” he said. But, $3,000 only gets you so far.”

The money from the grant can be used in any capacity to improve the quality of the property.

“The money from the grant can be used to purchase anything from Home Depot,” Coldwell said. “It can be an exterior upgrade or an interior upgrade. It can be a landscaping project. Maybe the house needs a new paint job. Or maybe the kitchen needs new cupboards.”

There are two restrictions for the grant.

“The person sending the letter of interest has to be a veteran and own property in Troy city limits,” he said. “The other restriction is the project has to be done by volunteers. We have until December 30 to complete the projects.”

Coldwell said if things go well that they will apply for the grant again.

“The cool thing about this grant is that you can apply for it every year,” he said. “The plan is to apply for it again, but we are going to wait and see how this first year goes.”

The Home Depot Grant is just one of many things the Mayor and his colleagues have up their sleeves to improve the City of Troy.

“We are working on a ton of stuff,” he said. “We are just chasing money down to move forward.”

One of these improvements is a new skateboard park.

“We received new equipment for the skateboard park,” he said. “It’s really cool. There was a group of six or eight kids that have been working on putting it together. It should be done by the end of the week.”

The city will also be receiving new street signs in the near future.

“We are working on getting new street signs that will indicate where things are located in town,” he said. “The signs will show where Troy High School is located. Where Roosevelt Park is located. We are dong it so people who drive through town can see there is more to the town than just Highway 2.”