| The Calhoun Commission has received a Community Facilities Grant in the amount of $24,200 from
USDA Rural Development funds that will be used to assist in the purchase of a wheelchair lift in the county courthouse.
The commissioners meet with USDA Rural Development officials to process the grant this week.
The Rural Development grant is now part of $32,920 the commission has for the project, with additional funding of $10,680 obtained for the project.
The wheelchair lift will provide assistance from the basement level of the courthouse, which is handicapped accessible, to the first floor of the courthouse where most of the county offices are located and is also used for voting.
It's been a long road trying to make the Calhoun courthouse handicap accessible, with grant requests issued by the county commission for more than a dozen years to construct an elevator that connects all four floors.
So far, all the elevation requests have been denied, although the commission does have an architectural plan to construct the elevator. The projected cost of the elevator has risen from less than $300,000 to about $800,000.
This year, the Calhoun Commission is trying to obtain grant funds to extend the lift to additional floors.
| 
