Macon County’s representatives apparently worked hard, and very successfully in 2005, to obtain grants for replacement of aging water and sewer lines for the cities of Lafayette and Red Boiling Springs. Three grants of $500,000 each were announced in the fall of last year, but photos of official ceremonies awarding the “big checks” were provided by the office of Governor Phil Bredesen just this week.

“We made all the requests we could make for these Community Development Block Grants last year, and were fortunate enough to receive all that we asked for,” reported County Mayor Glen H. Donoho this Monday.

A total of only 53 similar grants were awarded in 2005. Ninety-five Tennessee counties and numerous cities and municipalities state-wide were in competition for this combination of state, federal, and local matching funds grants totaling nearly $50 million.

Macon County, Lafayette and Red Boiling Springs received three of the fifty-three CDGB grants awarded state wide, and the most granted to any county in the Upper Cumberland Development District (UCDD).

Badly Needed Upgrades of water lines running from Spring Creek north along the Scottsville Road to the Kentucky line will be funded by the combined use of the Lafayette and County-requested block grant money, a total of $1-million, with some $80,000 in local matching funding added to this amount.

“It might seem strange that the county’s block grant money was applied to the Lafayette city water-line replacement project,” noted Donoho. “But it is a huge undertaking, replacing old 4” and 6” lines with new 8” lines, and these lines extend far along the city limits, serving thousands of customers in the northern part of the county.”

Lafayette Mayor Bill Wells gave much of the credit for the success in obtaining these grant monies to County Mayor Glen Donoho, working closely with state representatives, engineering firms and regional planners. RBS Mayor Kenneth Hollis echoed this praise for the county government’s efforts on behalf of both cities and all county residents.

The Lafayette water lines being replaced were first installed in the 1970s, and are plagued with leaks and low water pressure to the growing number of Scottsville Road residents, and residents on side roads down which Lafayette city water has been provided.

The new 8-inch Scottsville Road line will end where newer 6-inch lines connect at the Hanestown Road near the Kentucky State Line. Work on the mammoth line replacement job should begin in the late Spring or early Summer of this year, according to city Water Dept. supervisor Gene Reid.

RED BOILINGS SPRINGS block grant monies will be used to completely replace pumps at the city’s sewer pumping station on the Old Lake Road, according to RBS City Recorder Coby Knight. The existing system was last up-graded in 1993, and is now inadequate to provide for the city’s needs. Work on the project should begin late this Spring.