By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Lashawnna Miller, Assistant Grant Administrator for FIVCO, updated the Grayson Utilities Commission on the ARC Grant at the commission’s September meeting. The ARC Grant has been secured, and will provide funding for two new generators at the pump station and the painting of steel tanks. The ARC grant is for $412,000, with matching funds from the commission at $103,000.
Utilities Director Gerald Haney reiterated to the commission that the funding had been secured, and that now they were in the process of working on the checklist required for the project. Haney also told the commission that a resolution would need to be adopted that was associated with the project.
“The resolution is concerning cost overruns,” Miller told the commission. “That basically says that anything beyond the $412,000 is the responsibility of the commission.”
Miller also explained to the commission that there were certain steps that needed to be completed before the funds were released. One of those steps was the resolution, and another was a Title 6 Plan. A Title 6 Plan concerns prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. This is required for any program or activity that receives federal financial assistance.
The commission voted to adopt the required resolution for the grant, and also voted to give director Gerald Haney authorization to sign letters of assurance and provide for any other requirements concerning that particular ARC Grant.
Haney updated the commission on current work being done at the wastewater treatment plant, including “settlers.”
“We are making progress this month,” Haney told the commission. “I did have the people from Brentwood come. They were here earlier and gave us the quote for $52,000. That was a much lower quote than the first quote.”
Haney said the representatives from Brentwood looked over the project and didn’t see anything that might increase the estimate.
“We did have contractors looking at it as well,” Haney told the commission. “It is a 12-week time frame, and I have another person coming to look at it to give me another quote. But we couldn’t schedule that before today’s meeting.”
Haney said he preferred to wait until he was able to speak with the final bidder before making a decision. All information, he said, would be available by the October 2026 meeting.
Haney also updated the commission on bids for the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) network. He said they had spoken with Microcom, the company most of the telemetry is through.
“It was $250,000 from the company we spoke to initially,” Haney told the commission. “They gave a price for doing it all. And they also want to maintain the software. Their price is around $110,000.”
Haney said he had also spoken to a representative from another company based in Lexington.
“They are not including the radio,” Haney said. “But their price is around $150,000.”
“The picture is getting a little clearer,” Haney said of the project. “But we want to fine tune it before we decide on which direction to go.”
The system does need to be modernized and brought up to date, Haney said. But it is currently functioning, he said, so he believed the “settlers” were a more pressing need at the moment.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
