More than half-a-million in grants awarded to Wayne County
By Barbara Arntsen
Published in News on February 14, 2005 1:57 PM
Wayne County has been approved for two state grants, totaling $650,000, to help with sewer and water projects.
Sen. John Kerr said the formal announcements will be made soon by the North Carolina Rural Economic Center.
Wayne will get $350,000 to provide sewer service to the Georgia-Pacific plant in Dudley. That will mean extending existing county sewer lines from Brogden Middle School to the plant.
Joanna Thompson, the president of the Wayne County Economic Development Commission, said that the plant has a self-contained system, but that it is outdated and that the plant could be vulnerable to environmental penalties if it failed.
The second grant, for $300,000, will go to the Eastern Wayne Sanitary District. The money wil help build a new water plant.
Water officials said that new state capacity rules have reduced the amount of water that can be pumped from deep wells, so Eastern Wayne Sanitary District is developing a shallow well field.
They said that the district is still looking at potential sites for the plant, and hopes to build it by the end of the year.