City to get $8.5M from state for housing, future judicial center

Mayor Sandy Roberson said he is elated that the N.C. General Assembly approved allocations to fund affordable housing in the city and a future judicial center downtown to replace the one in a more-than-century-old former school building off Cokey Road just southeast of downtown.

An extensive document listing allocations of state funding all over North Carolina said a total grant of $8.5 million is going to Rocky Mount to help pay for affordable housing and the future judicial center. Roberson said his information is $5 million of that $8.5 million would be for the future judicial center.

Roberson said he and others went to Raleigh to lobby state lawmakers to help pay for affordable housing and the future judicial center.

The current judicial center is in a state of great disrepair, Roberson said, and judges have asked for a new facility.

“I don’t think it’s any secret the city of Rocky Mount has acquired land with the intention of building a new judicial center,” Roberson also said.

He said he when he went to Raleigh and asked for money, he received quite a bit of backlash associated with that from some City Council members.

He said he believed the primary issue associated with that was they were concerned the city was going to be obligated to spend a certain amount of money and that this grant would require a dollar-for-dollar match from the city.

He emphasized this is just a $5 million grant from the state to allow the city to move forward with the future judicial center.