DeKalb County has been approved for a grant from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to help fund extension of water lines to a portion of the county.
The Community Development Block Grant is in the amount of $500,000 with a local match of $120,000 to be funded by the DeKalb Utility District.
County Mayor Tim Stribling told WJLE Wednesday that the project is to serve around 40 households on Tramel Branch, Oakley Road, Carter Lane, Old Givens Hollow, and the Dismal to Alexandria Road. Many of these residents have poor quality water or little or no water. “When we applied for it there were about 43 houses that it would serve including 135 to 140 people,” he said.
“Tuesday morning I received a phone call from State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver saying that our application for a Community Development Block Grant for the water line extension project had been funded. On Wednesday morning, I received a letter from Commissioner Randy Boyd of the Department of Economic and Community Development saying that Governor Haslam has approved our 2016 CDBG application in the amount of $500,000 for this water line extension project,” said County Mayor Stribling.
The county mayor has sent a letter to each affected household informing them of the grant and also letting them know that it will be next spring at least before any work is done. “As you are aware, this is a long and tedious grant process, and we must follow the State and Federal guidelines to be successful. It will be late spring before construction will begin so please be patient with us as we work through the grant process. I will be working with the DeKalb Utility District to send out information regarding water taps in the spring,” wrote County Mayor Stribling.
The DeKalb County Commission adopted a resolution in January authorizing the filing of the grant application.
The county had applied for and been denied the grant twice within the previous two years. But this time in order to improve its chances, the county asked for a little less grant money while the DeKalb Utility District committed to ante up more in its local match commitment. The total project cost is the same.
Amanda Mainord of Grassroots Planning & Consulting, is the grant administrator for the project.
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