JASPER, Tenn. – When the plan to build a regional wastewater facility recently fell apart, so did Marion County’s application for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant to help fund it.
South Pittsburg officials decided to build the town its own facility, while Kimball and Jasper will collaborate to revamp Jasper’s old sewage plant.
Because the county once again is eligible to apply for the grant, county commissioners were forced to decide where the money should go.
The board voted unanimously to split the grant money so that each project will get $250,000 after a motion by Commissioner Tommy Thompson to give all the money to the Jasper and Kimball project failed.
“That wasn’t an easy decision to make on the spur of the moment,” Commission Chairman Gene Hargis said. “We just hope everything turns out the way we need it to.”
Beth Jones, executive director of the Southeast Tennessee Development District, said commissioners could choose to put the grant money toward a housing rehabilitation project in South Pittsburg, give it all to the Kimball and Jasper sewer project or split the money between the two proposed sewer plants.
“The reason we would recommend going for infrastructure is that, in the state of Tennessee, the plan favors either water or sewer system improvements or line extensions,” she said. “There are only about three housing rehab projects in the entire state every single year.”
Officials said 75 percent of South Pittsburg’s sewer plant project will be covered by grant money, while only 45 percent of Kimball and Jasper’s upgrade will be funded by the state.
“South Pittsburg is in a slightly better situation than Jasper and Kimball from the standpoint that [USDA Rural Development] has deemed them an imminent threat,” Jones said. “They are qualifying for a 75 percent rural development grant. The Jasper and Kimball plant will not get those same terms.”
Commissioner Donald Blansett, also South Pittsburg’s utilities manager, said Kimball and Jasper must pay about $1.8 million each to upgrade Jasper’s existing facility, while South Pittsburg needs roughly $1.5 million to build its treatment plant.
“With the two plants that we’ve got planned, we’re looking at picking up an extra half-million gallons in capacity [versus the original regional plant idea], which in the future could be very valuable to the county,” he said.
Kimball actually will pay more than Blansett’s estimate, Mayor David Jackson said, because the town also plans to extend a sewer line to the site of a proposed technical skills training center at a cost of about $412,500.
Jones said expansion of the Jasper plant would open up the possibility of industrial growth in the north end of the county, but both projects are critical since they are under a state order to get things fixed immediately.
“You need them both,” she said. “South Pittsburg is currently carrying the [wastewater] treatment of the entire commercial retail center at the I-24 corridor, and you need them both. That’s just all there is to it at this point.”
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com