October 24, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
DeKalb County has been approved for a special needs grant in the amount of $65,130 to replace the current HVAC system, phone system and to repave the parking lot at the local health department.
Michael Railing, Director of the DeKalb Health Department applied for the grant from the Upper Cumberland Primary Care Project, supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
County Mayor Tim Stribling said there is no local match requirement for the grant.
“We received a grant for our health department and this is through the Tennessee Department of Health. No matching funds are required for the county. It’s to repave the parking lot at the health department, to install a new phone system there, and to put in a new HVAC system with some air purifiers. They have two. One went out about two years ago and we had to replace it. This is to replace the other one with the air purifiers and to put air purifiers on the one we replaced about two years ago. There will probably be a budget amendment coming for that and it might be one of those where we have to spend it and then get reimbursed by the state. We have done that before,” said County Mayor Stribling.