News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The State of Tennessee recently awarded Van Buren County an approximately 296 thousand dollar Community Development Block Grant for Fire Protection Improvements.
County Executive Greg Wilson said the grant will pay for new fire department equipment.
“This grant is for self-contained breathing apparatuses for our fire departments, which is badly needed because a lot of those we have in our fire departments right now are expiring,” Wilson said. “We are able to get that and it was very badly needed for our volunteer fire departments.”
Wilson said Van Buren took part in the competitive grant application last year as well.
“We were first turned down last year for the same thing we put in part this year. They changed the parameters somewhat on it and put smaller counties inside,” Wilson said. “And I can’t tell you exactly how they did that. But since we are a tier four county, we competed basically with tier four counties for this grant.”
Van Buren County really needed this grant, Wilson said.
The county will provide a matching portion to the grant money provided by the state.
Tennessee gave 2.6 million dollars worth of Community Development Block Grants to the Upper Cumberland. Van Buren County is one of seven Upper Cumberland cities and counties receiving Community Development Block Grants.
