CHESAPEAKE — If additional Community Development Block Grant funds are approved for Lawrence County, the corridor from Proctorville to the Chesapeake Community Center could get an infrastructure boost.

Already the county is scheduled to get $114,500 in CDBG with $100,000 earmarked for a sewer line extension in Rome Township. The remainder will go toward replacing the boiler at the community center.

However, those funds could be increased up to $300,000 for certain kinds of infrastructure projects.

“(The state) wants to be able to invest dollars into the infrastructure to make more impactful projects,” Ralph Kline of the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization, said. “They will add a boost to those funds.”

If that boost is approved, the county wants to focus that money on a targeted area around the community center east to Bradrick and Proctorville.

“We would be working on sidewalks and streetscaping work in the area where the Ohio Department of Transportation has a major repair drainage,” Kline said. “The target is to take it from there and work as far as the funds take it. That would be a multi-year program in order to take it all on.”

Commission President Bill Pratt sees the project as presenting an important cosmetic improvement for that part of the county.

“At this point, that is the main thoroughfare between Ironton and Rome,” Pratt said. “It is important to make that area attractive, in my opinion. That will help put a better face on Lawrence County for those who travel that route.”