The City of Whitesville was surprised Monday afternoon after being awarded two grants totaling more than $550,000 for wastewater treatment plant and City park improvements. Daviess County Fiscal Court was awarded $75,000 to go toward an all-inclusive playground at Horse Fork Creek Park, designed to be accessible for children with or without disabilities.
These three grants were announced at a jam-packed Whitesville City Hall. Commissioner Sandra Dunahoo, with the office of the governor Department for Local Government (DLG) presented the grants to both entities and spoke about her department’s focus on improving, not just big cities, but smaller, rural communities across the Commonwealth.
The $75,000 Land and Water Conservation grant awarded to Fiscal Court helps put the County’s ADA-compliant park project on track toward fruition. This grant will supply half the funding for the approximately $150,000 playground at Horse Fork Creek Park.
“It’s going to benefit children of all ages, disabilities and adults,” Dunahoo said. “No one is going to be excluded, and that’s what makes this project particularly attractive.”
The City of Whitesville was awarded $28,776 that will go toward resurfacing the community park trail at Whitesville City Park. Dunahoo said between 30 and 50 people walk the trail each day, and that its close proximity to the senior citizen center made the project a viable candidate for beautification.
But the biggest surprise came when Dunahoo awarded Whitesville with a $541,250 grant for upgrades and replacements that will be made to the City’s existing sewage treatment plant.
Dunahoo spoke about the DLG’s mission to improve communities like Whitesville across the Commonwealth. Over the last four years with the DLG, Dunahoo said the department has pushed out 21 projects to Davises County, totaling $32 million.
“When I came over to the DLG, the governor’s directive was fairly simple,” she said. “He said, ‘Go over, inspire people and make good investments.’ We’ve pushed out approximately $700 million since I’ve been there. That happens, not because we do it, but because we get excellent applications from people like Joanna Shake at GRADD (Green River Area Development District).”
Dunahoo said projects like these are intended to help develop communities and create better employment opportunities for those who live there.
“During Bevin’s administration, 57,644 new jobs have been created. $22.3 billion in new investments has happened. That’s a record that none of us have ever seen before — it’s historic,” she said. “There’s been 1,229 new and expanded businesses [across Kentucky], which is also historic. As businesses expand and new ones are created, there’s more opportunities for employment.”
The repairs and replacements made to Whitesville’s sewage treatment plant will include the replacement of three blowers, improvements to the UV disinfection system, the removal of solids from the lagoon, the rehabilitation of the pump station and grounding filters and the replacement of leaky airhead piping. Dunahoo called it a “fairly substantial project.”
Whitesville Mayor Patsy Mayfield said she had no idea her City would be awarded the sewer grant, let alone for a half-million dollars.
“I was not expecting all this,” she said afterward. “I wasn’t for sure I was even going to get my sewer grant. I thought I might get my walking grant, but they wanted to make it a surprise, they didn’t want me knowing about it. I’m so excited, I don’t know what to say.”
The $541,000 grant will take care of the sewage systems for around 438 Whitesville residents who live within City limits, Mayfield said.
The sewer grant was written by GRADD’s Senior Infrastructure Planner Skyler Stewart, who said the entire sewage project is estimated to cost $1,080,050, but that she was only able to apply for half of the amount through the Community Development Block Grant that was awarded. The application process took Stewart six months.
“There are two different funding sources,” she said. “It’s a 50/50 matching grant, so GRADD could only apply for half of the project cost. We’ve already submitted an application for a USDA Rural Development [grant and loan combination] for the other half.”
Stewart said fingers are crossed in hoping Whitesville is awarded the other half-million to fund the project.
“Sometimes, folks in small communities like this one, and in my hometown, will raise their hands and say, ‘Nothing’s happening for us,’” Dunahoo told the crowd. “But it is happening — it’s coming. As the larger communities become saturated and the workforce begins to not be sufficient to support the industries that are there, the investment opportunities are here in communities like ours. Eventually, we will see the benefit for what’s happening across the rest of the Commonwealth.”
