January 8, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
Three months after completion of the $2.8 million upgrade at the Smithville Waste Water Treatment Plant, city officials now want to begin a rehabilitation of existing sewer lines in the system.
During Monday night’s meeting, the Aldermen voted to apply for another $525,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development for this purpose. The Upper Cumberland Development District will administer the grant application on behalf of the city. If approved, the city will have to pay the required local grant match.
Although the bulk of the funding for the sewer plant rehab project came from the city’s water and sewer fund surplus, the municipality received a previous $525,000 CDBG grant for that project two years ago.
City Administrator Hunter Hendrixson said now that the sewer plant upgrade is completed, the city can apply for another grant. “As you know we’re closing out our grant for the sewer plant so now we can apply for another Community Development Block Grant from the state to do sewer line rehabilitation. Although we have done the sewer plant work, there are a lot of lines in the system that need to be replaced,” said Hendrixson.