Sparta To Use Grant Funding to Repair Sewer Lines

A Community Development Block Grant awarded to Sparta will go towards sewer rehabilitation.

City Administrator Chris Dorsey says the current system is outdated and is in need of repairs.

“We’ve got to try and keep up our aging infrastructure,” Dorsey says. “We have a $498,000 federal grant to help us with that to do a little work on that to help upgrade our sewer capacity in our sewer lines.”

Dorsey says CDBGs can often times play a vital role for small communities to help tackle larger projects.

“One of the good things about these grants is you’re able to maximize and leverage your dollars with those grants to be able to get these things done,” Dorsey says. “Whenever we’re able to get one… for us spending $500,000 versus us only having to spend five, 10, 20 percent of that amount that we’d have to kick in, it’s great to be able to maximize those dollars to do these sort of projects that might be harder for a smaller city like Sparta to do on their own.”

Dorsey says water is infiltrating into the city’s aging sewer system and causing damage. No word on when repair work will begin.