October 25, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
DeKalb County will not be able to purchase a new tanker truck for the fire department using CDBG grant funds this year.
County Mayor Tim Stribling informed the county commission Thursday night, in a meeting of the whole workshop, that the county’s application for a $315,000 Community Development Block Grant has been denied.
“DeKalb County did not score high enough to be awarded a CDBG grant. The cutoff was 178 points and DeKalb County scored 159,” said County Mayor Stribling.
In January the County Commission gave formal approval of a resolution to apply for the grant through the CDBG program which is administered by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. Had it been approved the county would have been responsible for payment of a local grant match of 16% of the total project cost plus any additional funding required to complete the project beyond the grant amount. The Upper Cumberland Development District prepared all necessary documents for the completion of the grant application at no charge to DeKalb County.
County Fire Chief Donny Green said the grant would have been used to purchase a new tanker truck.
“We currently only have one tanker in the county. With the barriers and obstacles we have with water supply because we don’t have a lot of hydrants out in the county we really do have a dire need for another way to get water to the fire scenes in the rural parts of the county,” said Chief Green.
Although not awarded a CDBG grant this year, County Mayor Stribling said the county could re-apply next year. “It isn’t unusual for a grant application to be turned down on the first try,” he said. Stribling pointed to the fact that the county had to apply three times on behalf of the DeKalb Utility District before being funded a CDBG grant for water line extension in portions of the county in 2016.