News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville plans to approach White County and Jackson County about helping financially with the city’s planned water plant expansion.
Cookeville about $8 million short in paying the increased costs of the expansion which will increased capacity by 50 percent.
White County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said he has not received a formal proposal. Robinson said he would give the project its due diligence if submitted to the county.
“I don’t want to discredit anything or say anything is off the table,” Robinson said.”The city of Cookeville does supply water to the O’Connor Utility district, a portion of their water. So that does affect the citizens of White County, so obviously I can’t just give a hard no.”
White County has about $4 million of TDEC money to allocate to utility districts through non-competitive grants. Robinson said none of the money has been allocated yet.
“When I get this request, I will do a better dive into and get reports from O’Connor telling me how many gallons of water they get from Cookeville and what is that ratio compared to the number of gallons of water they distribute so we know how big of an impact that will be on White County,” Robinson said.
Robinson said seeing a project cross county lines like this is rare, but the American Rescue Plan funding has created a unique situation.
