The DeKalb County Commission Monday night adopted a resolution authorizing the filing of an application to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development for a Community Development Block grant to help fund the extension of water lines to a portion of DeKalb County.
The county has applied for and been denied the grant twice within the last two years. But this time in order to improve its chances, the county plans to ask for a little less grant money while the DeKalb Utility District has committed to ante up more. The total project cost would be the same.
If approved, the grant would be $501,000 with a $120,000 local match by the DeKalb Utility District.
Amanda Mainord of Grassroots Planning & Consulting, grant administrator, said the project would serve around 40 households on Tramel Branch, Oakley Road, Carter Lane, Old Givens Hollow, and the Dismal to Alexandria Road. Officials say many of these residents have to live with poor quality water or little or no water.
“I have been contacting residents who live on those roads and the utility district will be doing well testing again to check for bacteria in the water. We will then compile all that information in an application for the grant at the end of February,” said Mainord.
“The goal of the Community Development Block Grant is to serve low income communities. We have to prove that at least 51% of the area is low income. The more people who live in the area makes our costs per person lower. Last year’s survey showed about 40 families in the area or about 113 people. I’ve recently traveled the road and found that there’s about five extra houses than there were last year. The more people we have on the road the better we will score (for the grant). We’re up to about 137 people right now so this water line extension is greatly needed,” Mainord continued.
The grant application is due by the end of February. “I’ll submit the application to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The staff there will review the applications and rank them in comparison with other grant applications for water line extension projects. They will go out and visit the area and count the number of houses. After ranking the list, they will submit it to the Governor’s office. In 2014 about twelve water line extension grants were approved. In 2015 they only approved seven,” Mainord concluded.
It may be fall before its known if the grant is approved.
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