Rhea County Executive Jim Vincent announced to the full commission Tuesday that the county has received $4.9 million in grant money from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to be earmarked for improvements to existing water and sewer infrastructure.
“I am pleased to announce that everyone that applied for grant money from TDEC got some of it to be used on their projects,” he said.
Of the monies the county will be receiving, $289,000 will be going to Grandview Water District for a new line and valves; $680,000 to North Rhea Utility to replace existing lines with 8-inch pipe and new valves and allow them to connect into the Spring City Water System, and $750,000 to Watts Bar Utility to replace existing line with 8-inch pipe and to create a loop through the Wolf Creek community.
“The rest of the funds will be used to improve the sewer line that runs out of the city of Dayton on Highway 30 to the New Union community.
“Since Dayton has a pretty good water system, it was decided to put a 12-inch main sewer line along Highway 30 to White Oak Road where a new pumping station will be built and then extending a 10-inch line out New Union Road to Double S Road and then out to the Mark Anton Airport,” said County Executive Vincent.
He said the current line was at its maximum limit for expansion.
“This is not to bring in new customers for Dayton but to help existing ones with better service.
It will allow places in the Frazier/New Union area to have sewer. A lot of the places out there do not have any sewer service. The ground will not perk or the Health Department hasn’t been able to get to them to do a septic system inspection,” he said.
County Executive Vincent stressed that the aim was to help housing development in the county. “We had only 13 houses this month and 17 last month to sell. We have companies in the county wanting to expand their workforce, but we have nowhere to house them,” he said.