News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Upper Cumberland Habitat for Humanity’s merger with the DeKalb County unit has taken longer than expected.
The organization announced they would be servicing DeKalb County in March of last year. Director of Development Allison Smith said the merger of DeKalb County has slowed because of the legal paperwork that is needed when moving money and property to an account. Smith said the organization has hired lawyers to resolve the issue.
“They are just making sure that the paperwork makes all the sense in the world,” Smith said. “And that we are not moving to an uncertain account and that it’s all accounted for, and so we are just making sure everything is done to the upright legalities and whatnot for habitat as a whole.”
A volunteer board managed the DeKalb County chapter previously. Smith said the consolidation would help support the volunteers of the county.
“Even though they are voluntarily run and they got what they need, they really needed some people who were paid on a regular basis, that this is their only job to do,” Smith said. “A lot of those volunteers were either retired or they worked on dealing with habitat things on the side, and they really couldn’t get a house built in a timely fashion.”
Smith said they expect to break ground on building houses in Dekalb within the next year.
“We are tickled to take them on,” Smith said. “They have got a wonderful name in DeKalb County, so we wanted to add them to our family and hopefully in the next three months we will get the paperwork processed and then in the next six months we will break ground down there.”
Upper Cumberland Habitat for Humanity builds houses for those who cannot afford housing. Smith said they will obtain three lots in DeKalb County to build houses.
