USDA Rural Development Area Director Joe Woody and Area Technician Evetta Franklin joined Mayor Jonathan Dagley today at Wartburg City Hall to celebrate Wartburg’s recent grant that will assist with the city’s wastewater disposal system.
“I applaud the efforts of the City to look at improving their system’s efficiencies,” Woody said. “All users will benefit as the recommendations are evaluated and implemented to reduce operational costs of the wastewater system.”
As a recipient of a Special Evaluation Assistance for Rural Communities and Households Grant, the city of Wartburg received $30,000 to hire an engineering consulting firm who will evaluate sewer inflow data from individual basins and formulate solutions to reduce inflow and infiltration into the sewer collection system.
USDA-RD SEARCH grants assist very small, financially distressed rural communities with predevelopment feasibility studies, design assistance and technical assistance on proposed water and waste disposal projects. Areas interested in applying must have a median household income below the poverty line or less than 80 percent of the statewide non-metropolitan median household income based on the latest Census data.
USDA Rural Development is moving investments to rural America with housing, business and infrastructure loans and grants to create jobs and strengthen rural economies with an emphasis to assist areas of persistent poverty. Since 2009, the agency has assisted more than $1.5 million Tennessee families and businesses in 230 communities in all 95 counties of Tennessee, investing more than $5.4 billion through affordable loans, loan guarantees and grants.
For more information on USDA Rural Development programs available in East Tennessee contact the Knoxville Area Office at 865-523-3338 x 4, or 800-342-3149 x 1491. Visit us online at www.rd.usda.gov/TN.