Grants to pay for stream cleaning, new fire/rescue stations
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 24, 2017 8:53 AM
Wayne County will apply for grants to clean out streams, help build fire and rescue stations in the Seven Springs community and make repairs to a county-owned sewer pump station.
All of the projects are the result of damages caused by Hurricane Matthew.
The turnaround time on the grants is quick.
County officials just learned of the grants last week, and the filing deadline for both is March 3.
"We have become aware of two grant programs that we need to apply for," County Planner Chip Crumpler told Wayne County commissioners during their Tuesday morning session. "One is a stream cleanout grant program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is for hazard recovery for streams that received damage because of Hurricane Matthew."
The second one is an infrastructure grant through the Golden LEAF Foundation for communities that were affected or damaged by Hurricane Matthew, Crumpler said.
It pays for damaged infrastructure that could include sewer or actual facilities, he said.
Both the Seven Springs Fire Station and the building that housed the county's EMS unit were flooded because of Hurricane Matthew.
The EMS unit is temporarily located at Elroy Fire Station No. 2 on Dollard Town Road just north of Seven Springs.
For now, the fire trucks have returned to the old station, but only until a new station can be built outside the flood zone.
Crumpler is going to work with Seven Springs as far as doing the fire station because it was owned by the department, County Manager George Wood said.
"We were leasing the rescue squad (building)," Wood said. "Of course as you know, we had to evacuate that. We've got to build a station somewhere in the Seven Springs area. So we are going to ask for that."
The county also is going to try to get some money for the county-owned sewer pump station located in a field just north of SPX on U.S. 117 North, Dudley.
"It is an open wet-well pump system," Wood said. "When it floods, we get a lot of infiltration and inflow in the wet well. We would like to get some money to do some modifications to or replacement of that."
Wood said he is not sure how much the infrastructure grant application would be for.
"We have got to get a little more information," he said. "We literally just started on these, but they have a very short turnaround. We are going to ask for the whole thing and then see what they do."
The grant for the stream cleanout will be for approximately $150,000, Wood said.
"We might get more, but we can do quite a bit with $150,000," he said.
It is a "snag and drag" stream cleanout in which crews are sent in to clean streams of debris that has fallen into the stream bed, Crumpler said.
"It is done with light equipment and by hand," he said. "It is not heavy equipment operated. (Wayne County) Soil and Water Conservation is applying for that grant. They have several streams designated."
Ashley Smith, Soil and Water director, will be the contact for the stream debris cleanup, Wood said.
"I am going to give (Commissioner) Joe Gurley some credit on this, he approached me about if there were anything out there in stream cleanup," Wood said. "I put together about three or four of our departments that would be affected by this. So Chip, Soil and Water and Cooperative Extension all have been working on this and researching it."
Ms. Smith found out about a program and brought in the person who runs it for the state, Wood said.
"I think Ashley will probably be the point of contact there," Wood said. "Chip will be on we are looking at an EMS station and possibly our existing pump station that sits out there at SPX because that was inundated during the hurricane."
Also the Seven Spring Fire Station, Gurley said.
That is correct, Wood said.
Commissioner Ray Mayo asked if Soil and Water had recommendations on what streams it would like to be cleaned.
Mayo asked if he and the other commissioners could get a copy of the list. Wood said he would get the list for them.
"They are still working it up," Wood said. "That is how quick this has been. We only met with the person toward the end of last week. I assigned that to Ashley to go through because they do all of our stream work already."
The $50,000 paid annually by the county for beaver eradication will count as in-kind grant match, Wood said. The county can also count 12.5 percent of the salary paid for "our people," he said.
"I have asked them to look at the ones, in working with Chip, where we have the most flooding -- where is the most damage occurring and see what we can get done," Wood said. "That is what they are going to place an emphasis on. The whole thing is for hazard mitigation. So what we have got to prove to the state is these are the areas we had the most problems."
"Clearly, Hood Drive, all of that (in the Grantham community) -- I think there are two creeks that merge there. Clearly those are going to be on there. Then she's got some others in mind as well."
Mayo said he had been contacted by several citizens have not been able to get anywhere with having blue-line ditches cleaned. Blue-line ditches are owned by state and flow cannot be changed or impeded.
In one case, beavers are an issue, he said.
"If you will get that information I will get that to Ashley and make sure that they look at it and see if it can be included," Wood said.