The City of Whitesville has been awarded the remaining funds needed to upgrade its decades-old wastewater treatment plant, which was in desperate need of repair.
This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture office of Rural Development awarded the City a $243,250 grant and a $300,000 loan.
Last year, the City received a Community Development Block Grant totalling $541,250. However, that grant required a dollar-for-dollar match from the City. The Rural Development grant-loan split of $543,250 covers that required match, plus enough to cover contingency feels for construction.
The loan is over a 40-year term with a 1.375% interest rate, according to GRADD’s Senior Infrastructure Planner Skyler Stewart.
Stewart spent months working on the application for the grant and said the entire sewage project is estimated to cost $1,080,050.
“(The City of Whitesville) had been having some troubles with their sewer blowers and a lot of the stuff at their physical sewer plant,” she said. “We explored a couple of different options. What made the most sense was to renovate and replace the outdated and lower-functioning components of the sewer plant so it could improve sewer throughout the City of Whitesville.
“Most of their equipment is at warranty or past its lifespan. Any time that happens, it allows things like rainwater to come in and then everything has to work harder at the sewer plant. This will just make sewer service better throughout the city.”
Whitesville Mayor Patsy Mayfield, who took office in November of 2019, said they were grateful to receive the funding.
“That plant is almost 40 years old and everything is going down,” she said. “The pump station and sewer plant were really in need of repair. We didn’t know what we were going to do, so we started applying for grants. It means a lot to Whitesville. We were just so happy to get this grant.”
Stewart said an engineer has already been procured for the project. They have to go to bid by Nov. 1 as part of the grant requirement, though work likely won’t begin until early 2021 due to weather.
Stewart estimated the project would take less than six months because all the work would be done at the plant, meaning no streets or driveways would have to be torn up during the process.
