GRAND RIDGE, Fla. (WMBB) — Grand Ridge officials said their sewage and water systems needed a serious upgrade.
With the help of the state, they can finally afford to make these improvements.
“A place our size, less than 1,000 customers, there’s no way we could have made more than $8.5 million in improvements to our infrastructure,” Councilwoman Kimberly Applewhite said. “So we certainly appreciate the State of Florida and Ron DeSantis for taking care of the places affected by Hurricane Michael.”
Applewhite said the $7.5 million in community development block grants will cover citywide sanitary sewer rehabilitation and upgrades.
This will include the installation of 19 diversion pumps, emergency power generators and more.
“After Hurricane Michael, employees were working around the clock, around the clock, to make sure the lift stations were in place. We haven’t had power for a while,” Applewhite said. “They still had to make sure the lift stations were working. We didn’t have any emergency generators as this pot of money will provide us with that.
Public Works Supervisor Kevin Applewhite said this upgrade would help them immensely.
“It’s going to help us in the long run to just update our facilities, keep our employees and customers happy with everything, and just upgrade our system to where it will work more efficiently,” he said.
A second requested grant of an estimated $1 million will go towards upgrading drinking water wells across the city.
“It won’t be a new built park or a new city hall that will be obvious on the outside, to citizens,” Applewhite said. “But of course they use their water, they use their sewer, and so we have to make those improvements to make sure they have sanitary water and their sewer system works.”
City officials have sent out applications for the Community Development Block Grants.
They said they hoped to re-sign them and then start the projects as soon as possible.