‘So, this is a bright start’: EKY city to be awarded grant for water project

JACKSON, Ky. (WYMT) - The city of Jackson is working to build a new housing development for flood survivors.

On Monday, Rep. Hal Rogers, (R) KY-5, announced $1 million will be awarded to the city to extend water and wastewater services in the northern part of the city.

The money comes from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Section 531 Southern and Eastern Kentucky program.

“The grant is going to be used to help develop water and sewer services to an area of Jackson that doesn’t have services at this time and we really need the infrastructure to support housing development,” said Jackson Mayor Laura Thomas. “So, this is a bright start, an exciting time that we can say that we’re at least going to have those 14 new houses and that this project and these federal funds will be used to help that project.”

The project will replace an existing 10,000 gallon tank with a 300,000 gallon tank to make sure the new houses are able to receive those services.

She said there is still some frustration because the funding takes a while to get, leaving curiosity of when projects will be completed.

“We do need that, but they have to recognize that federal dollars don’t move quickly. So, we’re happy that we have been assigned federal disaster dollars but, the things that we need to do, they aren’t happening fast enough and I mean, that’s just part of it,” she explained.

She said officials are working to get funding quicker.

“They have, whether it was federal or state level, they have tried to move quicker than ever. So, it’s generally very slow, it’s not as slow as usual,” she said.

Thomas said there are a lot of steps that need to be completed before progress is made.

“We get the funding announcements and that’s awesome news, but folks just need to recognize that we have to go through a lot of hoops before we can actually access the funding,” she added.

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