Clay Approved To Take Next Steps Using TDEC Grant Funding

Clay County approved to take the next steps using its grant funding from the Community Block Development Grant program.

County Mayor Dale Reagan said the county received three allocations of grant funding to put towards the solid waste department from TDEC. One grant will fund a compactor for the Mount Vernon convenience center.

“Right now the way that we’re doing it is you take your household garbage out to the curb and you put it in those containers and then the frontloader truck comes by and then it compacts it in the truck,” Reagan said. “But that’s it. So if you had something there all the time to compact that down, you could probably fit three times the amount of household garbage in something than once it gets in that truck.”

Reagan said once that work is complete, the county will look at the next steps to get compactors at other sites in the county. He said the grant funding covers an estimated $50,000 of aid.

Reagan said another grant will fund aid for the county’s recycling efforts by purchasing a glass compactor. He said the current glass crusher is original to the recycling plant, which has been in operation since the late nineties. The final grant is some $20,000 in a used oil grant. A 550-gallon tank will be used to transport the material to the solid waste department to eventually be recycled.

“And that grant is a 100 percent grant but when I say that, we have to have the money in the budget because it’s something to be reimbursed,” Reagan said. “So you have to get the stuff, you have to put it in play, and then have it signed off and everything. And once that’s done they’ll cut you a check back.”