Woodbury Receives $500,000 Grant To Upgrade Water System

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Excitement rained throughout Woodbury City Hall Thursday afternoon when town officials received word it had been awarded a $500,000 Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) from the State of Tennessee.

The money will be used for much-needed improvements to the town's water system.

"I am ecstatic, almost speechless," Mayor Harold Patrick said. "I wasn't expecting it this soon. This money will go a long way toward getting our water system rehabilitation projects done."

Only about half the project requests across the state were funded this year, Patrick said.

"I am pleased the state saw fit to fund this very worthy project that will help us reduce our water loss," Patrick said. "We are very appreciative of State Representative Stratton Bone and State Senator Mae Beavers for their efforts in assisting us acquire the grant."

Charlene Odom, City Recorder, added, "This is wonderful news. It (the grant) will help us make improvements to our water system and in turn better serve our customers.

The city received a similar grant two years ago, Public Works Director Public Works Director Alan Paschal said. A portion of that grant was used to purchase Master meters, he said.

"We bought four then and we need 20 more," Paschal said. "They help us find where water loss is occurring quicker."

"This is great news for us," Paschal said. "It is going to help us continue to get our water loss down, which in turn helps us keep water rates as low as possible."

Governor Phil Bredesen and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber announced the grant this week.

“These grants are essential to the growth and maintenance of the infrastructure that attracts new jobs and other investments that help Tennessee communities thrive,” said Governor Bredesen. “I’m pleased the state of Tennessee is able to assist and our partnership with our communities continues.”

The funds were allocated under a procedure authorized by the Tennessee General Assembly.

“Economic growth and job creation is a team effort between the state and local communities and it starts from the ground up,” said Commissioner Kisber. “I’m pleased we’re able to partner with these CDBG recipients to lay the groundwork for future economic growth.”

Allocation of CDBG funds is based on priorities set at local levels where community needs are best known. The CDBG program is administered in Tennessee by the Department of Economic and Community Development.

WOODBURY'S PROGRAM NARRATIVE:

The proposed project requests CDBG funds for the continuation of an aggressive water loss reduction program for the Town of Woodbury. The project is needed to reduce the persistent and severe water loss currently being experienced by the Woodbury Water Distribution System.  Based on the annual average water loss of 55%, it is imperative that a long-term economical solution to reduce and further prevent the water loss problem be implemented.   The project as proposed is dependant upon obtaining a substantial grant.

The Woodbury Water Distribution System serves 3,409 residential customers. Results of a Target Area Survey reflect the following beneficiaries: 7,410 persons, 6,847 (92.4%) of whom qualify as LMI; 163 minorities (2.2%); 1,356 female heads of households (18.3%); 2,053 elderly persons (27.7%); and 526 (7.1%) disabled individuals.  

In spite of concentrated efforts on the town’s part, the necessary repairs exceed the capabilities of city forces and city finances. Since the town is unable to accomplish the needed repairs by force account, the importance of obtaining grant funds is therefore critical to the feasibility of the proposed project.  

The scope of this proposal is designed to replace 500 water meters and assemblies and reconnect to customer service; replace 15,000 linear feet of 3/4 inch copper service lines; install 1,500 linear feet 6-inch pressure class 350 ductile iron waterlines, and install four (4) 6-inch zone flow master meters with telemetry.  

The total project cost is estimated at $575,000 with proposed sources of funds including a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant and local matching funds in the amount of $75,000 to be acquired from the Woodbury Water and Sewer Fund.
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October 22, 2010 at 5:37am
October 21, 2010
NASHVILLE – Governor Phil Bredesen and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber recently approved more than $28 million in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) to assist with infrastructure improvements in Tennessee.
“These grants are essential to the growth and maintenance of the infrastructure that attracts new jobs and other investments that help Tennessee communities thrive,” said Governor Bredesen. “I’m pleased the state of Tennessee is able to assist and our partnership with our communities continues.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

1. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANTS
"I am pleased to announce that we are moving swiftly to get these much-needed funds out to states and cities to create jobs and help stimulate our economy," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.

H.R. 1, the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” passed the House on February 13, 2009, by a vote of 246 -184. Later that day, the Senate also passed the bill by a vote of 60 - 38. The President signed the bill on February 17, 2009. The bill is a $780 billion package, with roughly 35% of the package devoted to tax cuts (mostly for 2009) and the rest to spending intended to occur in 2009 and 2010.


People of Woodbury and Cannon County–kindly thank the Democrats in Congress for the passage of this bill and the funding of the $500,000 now available for the town and county.

Interesting to note that many of the Republicans who voted against this stimulus bill, ater passage by Democrats, lined up en masse to obtain those funds for their own pet projects in their districts and states.

There is some name that describes that -----


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October 22, 2010 at 6:18am
dailyreader, sometimes I find your logic astounding. The only entites I can see thanking are the American taxpayers. Or perhaps the Chinese for loaning us the money. Or future generations who will have to pay back the debt.

Will $500,000 help this community improve its water system? Absolutely, because over the last half century it has been allowed to degrade to the point where deterioration is widespread. That's the fault of community leaders and taxpayers throughout the decades, who didn't have the foresight to set money aside for future needs. However, it will not in the long run provide much in the way of a "stimulus."
October 22, 2010 at 11:11am
An e-mail from Shannon Sumrall(Governor's Office) to me with the full news release of this grant included this paragraph:

"The grant was approved following an application by the Town of Woodbury and has the support of Mayor Harold Patrick and Rep. Stratton Bone. Sen. Bob Corker, Sen. Lamar Alexander and Congressman Bart Gordon aided in securing the funds"

Here is the roll call on the votes of all from Tennessee:

Tennessee
— The 60-38 roll call by which the Senate on Friday passed an $787 billion economic recovery plan..
Voting "yes" were 55 Democrats, 3 Republicans and 2 independents.
Voting "no" were 0 Democrats and 38 Republicans.
Alexander (R) No; Corker (R) No.

The 244-188 roll call Wednesday by which the House passed a $819 billion economic stimulus bill.
Voting yes were 244 Democrats and 0 Republicans.
Voting no were 11 Democrats and 177 Republicans.

TENNESSEE
Democrats — Cohen, Y; Cooper, N; Davis, Y; Gordon, Y; Tanner, Y.
Republicans — Blackburn, N; Duncan, N; Roe, N; Wamp, N.



And now we have Alexander and Corker along with, no doubt Mashburn, Wamp, Duncan and Roe, all scrambling to get their names attached to the money.

And that is called.....
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October 22, 2010 at 11:38am
One of the greatest tragedies of our present time is the massive debt we our leaving future generations. We are all responsible. Some people obviously have no problem with it, because they continue to pile it on and want to make it bigger. We should look to France and Britian, respectively, to see not only the consequences, but the solution to the problem. But what do I know ... I'm a Small Government Fiscal Conservative.
October 22, 2010 at 1:47pm
Hallelujah! More pork brought to our community that we can spend now and let our grandchildren pay back later.
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October 22, 2010 at 3:17pm
Dailyreader you do not live in Cannon County and you do not pay taxes in Cannon County.

Please stick your nose back in the business of Rutherford County where you live and pay taxes at.

You are part of the problem. You offer no solutions and you do nothing but bash, critize and promote your own style of liberal manure.

This is not a political subject. It is a grant to improve water lines in my town, where I was born and where I have lived my whole life and a place I have a vested interest in. I don't care who voted for what or when they voted for it. What I care about is fixing the problem.

You need to worry about Murfreesboro and not Cannon County since that is where you live!

We will take care of our business here and you need to do the same there!

[Delete]
October 24, 2010 at 10:34pm
A grant does not have to be paid back but a loan does need to be paid back. This so called "pork" will not be passed on to the grandchildren of Woodbury.

With 55% of the water in some pipes leaking out in these times of drought, this plan will help conserve water for future generations.
October 25, 2010 at 7:13am
boo- doesnt matter what name you give it, grant or loan, it aint free and we will pay for it. See if this bothers you--all those billions and billions of federal free grant dollars being spent all over this country (and not Cannon County) your grandchildren wont have to pay because you will.
October 25, 2010 at 7:55am
boo-hoo this reminds of the woman standing in line wanting to get her some of that"Obama money". She had no idea where it came from she just thought it was free money. This kind of thinking is one of the reason we are in the shape we're in.
Looks like a few more votes were bought with this one.
October 25, 2010 at 10:57am
Boo-Also I meant to ask about conserving this water for future generations. You do realize that water leaking through a faulty pipe will go through the endless water cycle and be used again? It is good to repair leaks in our water system but we shouldn't need federal or state tax dollars to do it.
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October 25, 2010 at 12:47pm
OK for all of you who do not want to take grant monies to fix 50 year old water pipes because it is tax money and "pork" as you call it, I have a suggestion.

Please call Mike Gannon and set up time to be on the next county commissioners meeting and bring your solution so we can all be amazed at your wisdom on how to solve paying for broken water lines when we don't have the money in the budget to do it.

Or, better yet, just propose we increase our property taxes enough that we can all share in the glory of paying for it.

I bet none of you have used or know of anyone who uses the Senior Citizens Center, or the Arts Center, or the courthouse, or REACH or any other organizations like that do you?

Because if you have ever used them, you have reaped the benefits of all of the grants that were given to help maintain those services.

I seriously cannot figure out why you are complaining about getting money to pay for water lines.

I had much rather see Cannon County get it than some other place and I had much rather is be a grant for water lines vs. studying monkeys in Brazil and why they like banana's that are green instead of brown.

You people need to find something to do if this is all you have to worry about.
October 26, 2010 at 7:43am
do77-it is not that we dont want -the problem is we want and want and want and then we want someone else to pay.
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