News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The State of Tennessee recently awarded Sparta with a 498 thousand dollar Community Development Block Grant for sewer system improvements.
Mayor Jeff Young said the Community Development Block Grants provide vital funding to city projects.
“We have been very fortunate to get this grant a couple different times in the past. That Community Development Block Grant is really the only way small communities like us can do the bigger sewer and water projects without a tax increase,” Young said. “The last thing we want to do is do that, so it is a great help it has given us.”
Various small communities compete for the Community Development Block Grants, Young said.
Young said the 498 thousand dollar grant will provide Sparta means to replace old sewer lines.
“We will be replacing lines and improving the pumps. Different things like that. I don’t have the plan in front of me right now, but it is a specific scope of work that is up to our engineers and our wastewater plant design,” Young said. “I am sure it is going to replace some of those fifty, sixty-year-old lines that are in the ground currently.”
Tennessee awarded 2.6 million dollars worth of Community Development Block Grants to the Upper Cumberland. Sparta is one of seven Upper Cumberland cities and counties to receive Community Development Block Grants.
