By John West
The City of LaFayette has been awarded a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for $500,000. The grant money will go towards making much needed repairs to the city water treatment plant. The announcement was made at Monday’s city council meeting. “I think everyone’s excited about this,” said LaFayette City Clerk, Lewis Davidson. “We were awarded a CBDG grant to do repairs to the water plant. This is much needed.”
The money will be used to do several repairs. “This is going to go towards the intake,” said water plant superintendent Ann Gleaton. “We’re going to get a whole new intake system at the lake, new screens, new pipes. We got a 10 inch pipe right now. We’re going to go to 16 inch. It’s also going to cover a generator for the water plant, a generator for the pump house and some repairs to the clear well.”
The city has submitted proposals for this grant for the past two years. Nothing has come from the proposals before now. Community Development Block Grants are government grants that can be used foe a number of projects. Often, they go toward infrastructure, economic development projects, public facilities installation, community centers, housing rehabilitation, public services, clearance/acquisition, microenterprise assistance, code enforcement, and homeowner assistance.
An award ceremony will be held on January 20th in Montgomery for all CDGB grant recipients across the state. City officials will be on hand at the ceremony to receive the grant.
“This is exciting times,” said LaFayette Mayor Kenneth Vines. “I wanted to smile about it. When I go down to see the governor, I’m going to want to hug her or something. I probably can’t get too close,” Vines joked. “I definitely want to thank her for it.”