Elizabethton receive Community Development Block Grants

ELIZABETHTON (July 12, 2018) — Carter County and the city of Elizabethton were the recipients of Community Development Block Grants recently announced by Gov. Bill Haslam and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe. Those grants were among the 70 Community Block Grants valued at $26 million announced Wednesday.

Elizabethton received a $525,000 grant for water system improvements. Carter County received $315,000 for a new emergency operations center.

Johann Coetzee, Elizabethton’s Water Resources Department general manager, said the grant will allow the city to replace miles of old galvanized line that is still a part of the water system well past the expected lifetime of the material.

Gary Smith, Carter County Emergency Management Agency director, said the county’s current emergency operations center has space for about six key players in an emergency. It only has about 150 square feet of floor space inside an old-fashioned fire vault designed to store local government documents, not people.

Read the full article in the Johnson City Press.