The City of Elberton announced the largest grant funding in its history at its monthly council meeting Monday. Elberton has been approved for $45 million in funding from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority under the Helene Resiliency Funding Program.
“This represents a significant milestone in our long term infrastructure planning and efforts,” city manager Kevin Eavenson said. “I'd like to thank our staff and our engineering partners for their hard work and dedication in pursuing what is the largest grant funding opportunity in the city’s history.”
The funding will go towards improving and modernizing Elberton’s water and sewer infrastructure systems. The improvements were discussed in detail at the city’s water summit on Jan. 8, where they went over project scope, estimated costs and potential funding sources.
The city submitted three pre-applications to GEFA totaling a requested $79.5 million in funding. GEFA approved all three pre-applications and awarded a total of $45 million. The early terms of the agreement include 75% loan forgiveness and 0% interest financing.
Approximately $33.75 million in funding is set to be forgiven while the remaining $11.25 million is to be paid back over a 20-30 year period.
Mayor R. Daniel Graves thanked Elberton director of water and wastewater operations Jason Hackett for his role in formulating the proposals and securing the funding, touting his “leadership and his relationship with engineers”.
“I've seen those engineers come in, and Jason say, ‘Well, why don't y'all do it this way?’” Graves said. “And they turn the map upside down, like, ‘Oh, I guess that would work, wouldn't it?’ So we're very lucky to have that.”
Eavenson said the city is moving forward with its construction of a “splash park” adjacent to the Splash Island Elberton, with construction of a new pavilion underway.
Preparations are underway to start the splash pad itself back up, and opening day is set for May 1.
At the beginning of the meeting, Elberton resident Scott Cothran spoke from the floor, asking the council to do something to address the concern of speeders in the Highland Park and W Railroad St area.
“We’re looking for speed bumps, three-way stop signs, something to help slow the traffic before someone does get hurt,” he said. “There are small kids out there, families, pets.”
Cothran said he spoke to council member Troy Colquitt about the issue a couple of weeks prior, and claimed Colquitt responded by saying he “would not have damn speed bumps in [his] area”.
Cothran said he “didn’t think that was very professional” on Colquitt’s part, and again reiterated his request for some effort to slow down traffic in the area.
City attorney Steve Jenkins said the Atlanta Braves have been added to ElbertonNET’s cable package, noting that he had reviewed and approved a contract with the Braves organization to feature the team’s broadcasts on ElbertonNET.