Franklin County using ARC grant funds for water and sewer improvements

In Part II of our look at current infrastructure projects in Franklin County, County Manager Beth Thomas gives an overview of the Appalachian Regional Commission and the role it plays in local infrastructure projects.

Thomas first talks about who the ARC is and what they do.

Franklin County is part of the Appalachian Regional Commission. We always abbreviate things in government so we call that ARC for short. It’s a region that covers all or part of 13 states all along the Appalachian Mountains. This allows Franklin County to draw down on federal grant funds for economic development. In the past Franklin County has made use of these opportunities. As a matter of fact, we use $300,000 of ARC funds for our sewer project which is currently under construction,” said Thomas.

The county manager said the ARC was also instrumental in securing funds for the current water system improvement projects.

The power plants in both Franklin County and Madison County offered additonal opportunities. Through the combined efforts of several parties including Franklin County, Madison County, ARC, the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and two regional commissions we actually filed a joint application with Franklin County as the lead. That joint application was awarded $2.2 million in federal ARC funds or which $775,000 will go to Franklin County’s project. That split was based on the needs of each of the counties for water system improvements for each of these power plants. This is a matching grant so Franklin County will match it with 30 percent compared to ARC’s 70 percent of the project’s cost,” said Thomas.

Funds from the sale of water to the power plant, which is slated to be the county’s biggest customer, will allow the county to pay for a loan for their matching contribution to the project.