By Ryan Lewis
Correspondent
JASPER, Tenn. — Sometimes what’s best for the whole comes at the expense of the few.
Though Marion County commissioners were hoping to apply for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant to extend water lines to homes along East Valley Road and U.S. Highway 41, they recently learned that probably won’t happen.
Instead, commissioners voted 14-1 to apply for grant money to build a much-needed wastewater treatment plant that would serve the entire county.
“This sewer project will impact a far greater number of people than either one of the water projects that we’ve talked about,” Commissioner Thomas Thompson said at the January meeting.
“I think we should use our eligibility toward this sewer plant, and we’ll just have to put these other projects off for another year,” he said. “I know that when you’re without water, it’s a bad situation, but somebody’s got to move in some direction.”
Beth Jones, executive director of the Southeast Tennessee Development District, acknowledged that there are still people in Marion County without municipal water.
“Not to diminish their problems, but where we have people left (without water) are smaller pockets. It’s a lot more expensive to get water to them because of elevation or topography. So, the density is not there,” Ms. Jones said.
BY THE NUMBERS$500,000-plus: Cost for water lines on East Valley Road$106,000: County share44: Households served$900,000-plus: Cost for water line on U.S. 41$26,000: Annual operating/maintenance cost27: Households servedSource: Marion County Commission
To get the grant money, there must be a health issue involved and at least 51 percent of the households had to be low-income families, Ms. Jones told commissioners.
She said the two areas commissioners asked her to examine do not meet those stipulations and wouldn’t be viewed as cost-effective.
“Unfortunately, sometimes we have to sit on this board and look at the overall well-being of the whole county as an entirety, instead of just one area,” Commission Chairman Gene Hargis said. “
Matching funds for the treatment plant would be provided by utilities in South Pittsburg, Kimball, Jasper and Whitwell, not from county funds, officials said.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.