News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The State of Tennessee has awarded Crossville with a 525 thousand dollar Community Development Block Grant for sewer system improvements.
City Manager Greg Wood said infrastructure costs make the Community Development Block Grants more competitive.
“Infrastructure issues are big for local governments and we try to make it as cost-effective for your local taxpayers as you can,” Wood said. “So it is very helpful to get these grants because it is an expensive proposition.”
The Community Development Block Grant will provide funding to replace sewer lines in Crossville.
“When we get heavy rains we get water into the system and it overloads the wastewater treatment plant when it is really bad,” Wood said. “So we do everything we can to try to cut down on that and make our plant more effective and save dollars for the taxpayers.”
Wood said the city doesn’t have an exact plan in place for the replacements.
“We have a general area where we know we have some issues. Bronze street being one of them and there are some others out there,” Wood said. “Right now we are actually doing another contract where we are running video cameras through the lines to find the worst lines that are in the area that we have designated. From that, we will design plans and go ahead and bid out the project and move forward.”
The counties and cities applying must meet certain income requirements. Crossville
“Well, you have to have a qualifying as far income requirements, which is low to moderate income. We qualified for that. And you have to have grants that fall into the specific areas defined by the CDBG program. There are actually some others besides the infrastructure programs. There are some housing and economic development type programs.”
Wood said the particular grant Crossville receives deals directly with water and sewer.
The State of Tennessee approved approximately 2.6 million dollars in Community Development Block Grants to the Upper Cumberland. Crossville is one of seven Upper Cumberland cities and counties receiving Community Development Block Grants this fiscal year.
