DUD Approves Project to Serve 33 New Customers

The DeKalb Utility District Board of Commissioners met in special session Thursday afternoon and took action that will soon provide water to 33 new customers on Tramel Branch Road, Oakley Road, Carter Lane, and the Alexandria to Dismal Road
Bids were awarded to two contractors to extend water lines to the targeted areas. The $930,000 project will be funded through a $500,000 Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Block Grant and $430,290 in funding from the DeKalb Utility District.
The DUD had originally intended to provide only $121,000 but decided to add another $309,290 after bids for the project came in higher than expected.
The board accepted a bid of $392,865 from Flo-Line Contracting of Monticello, Kentucky to do the work on Alexandria to Dismal Road and for $294,345 for the project on Carter Lane and Oakley Road. Mofield Brothers Construction of Carthage got the bid for $148,580 to extend water lines on Tramel Branch Road.
According to the DUD, the water line extensions will provide water to fourteen customers on the Alexandria to Dismal Road, seven families on Tramel Branch Road, and twelve households on Carter Lane and Oakley Road.
The original plans were to also include Old Givens Hollow Road, which would have served seven customers, but that portion of the project was excluded due to the costs. “The low bid on that alone was $315,000 just to do it (Old Givens Hollow). It was just too cost prohibitive. Had we done this we wouldn’t have been able to do anything else and we wouldn’t have gotten the grant because we wouldn’t have qualified with enough people (customers). Even though we are putting a lot more money into this overall project, it just wasn’t feasible to do this portion (Old Givens Hollow),” said DUD Manager Jon Foutch.
The DeKalb County Commission adopted a resolution in January, 2016 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.
Amanda Mainord of Grassroots Planning & Consulting, was the grant administrator for the project.