The Golden LEAF Foundation, as part of its 2003 annual grant cycle, will pay $300,000 each to Columbus County and the Town of Windsor for infrastructure improvements at two new state prisons.

The nonprofit foundation, established by the General Assembly to distribute half of the state’s portion of the 1998 tobacco settlement, also decided to fund a Southern-Pines-based horse park for the third year in a row.

The awards were part of Golden LEAF’s fourth yearly round of grants. The organization was formed ostensibly “to provide economic impact assistance to economically affected or tobacco-dependent regions of North Carolina.” According to the group, 64 of the state’s 100 counties are economically distressed and/or tobacco-dependent, but no county is excluded from applying for funds. The Golden LEAF’s website lists 64 grants for 2003, totaling more than $9.1 million.

The two prisons are expected to provide 400 jobs each, and will be operated by the Department of Correction.

The Carolina Horse Park Foundation received $200,000 from Golden LEAF in 2001 and $50,000 in 2002. The organization began in March 1998 primarily as a nature conservancy group to prevent land development, and changed its name twice as it transitioned into an equestrian events support organization. The horse park received another $50,000 this year to support an event next September.

Golden LEAF also awarded:

• $100,000 to the CSS Neuse Gunboat Association in Kinston, to establish a downtown museum around “one of only three ironclad Civil War gunboats on display in the world.”

• $200,000 to Greene County Schools for a technology learning project that will “provide Apple iBook computers to each student and teacher in grades 6 through 12 in the school system.”

• $250,000 to the North Carolina Arts Council to help “implement a model agricultural and heritage tourism model” to enable farmers and communities “to create new sustainable tourism products.”

• $50,000 to Roanoke River Partners, Inc. “to support improvements and enhancements of the Roanoke River Paddle Trail & Camping System as an eco-tourism attraction…”

• $35,000 to Rockingham County for a feasibility study and business plan for its own equestrian and agricultural center.

• $50,000 to the Town of Scotland Neck to develop “an agri-tourism and eco-tourism presence in southern Halifax County…”

• $100,000 to UNC-Charlotte to conduct an economic assessment of the motorsports industry in the state.

In addition, the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation, based at N.C. State University, will receive more than $360,000 for four projects, and the college will receive $815,000 for five agriculture-related projects.

The University of North Carolina will receive $512,500 to assist 205 students from tobacco-dependent communities with tuition and fees.

Paul Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal. Contact him at [email protected].