Carroll County’s loss could be the Town of Hillsville’s gain when it comes to federal stimulus funds.

Carroll County recently applied to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for federal stimulus funds for four sewer projects. While none of Carroll’s projects made DEQ’s priority list for loan assistance from 2009 federal stimulus funds, a Town of Hillsville project did. Among the $114.8 million in projects that made the list was a $552,900 request by the Town of Hillsville for a main interceptor replacement sewer line.

Even though it made the priority list, Hillsville is not guaranteed to receive money as only $77 million in actual funds are available to be awarded.

“It is very important to note that the draft list is considerably longer and targets significantly more funding requests then available funds can fully address,” the DEQ said in a statement to localities across the state. “As such, and given the draft nature of the list, an applicants’ presence on the list does not guarantee funding.”

If the $552,900 is awarded to the Town, Hillsville Town Manager Larry South said it would go toward a $666,450 project to replace an old section of 2,200 feet of interceptor sewer line between W. Grayson Street and the new sewer plant. It would also upgrade the Town’s pump station across from the old Carroll News office on U.S. 58.

“We have had issues with it,” South said. “We have had some overflows, and it is probably one of the older lines in our system. There is a lot of infiltration in it.”

South said that he and Town engineers met with DEQ representatives in Abingdon on April 7. There are no guarantees the Town will receive the money, but South has been encouraged from initial reports.

“It sounded real positive. They were wanting to know if the project could start by August,” South said. “There is still more projects than money, but at least we made that list. We won’t know for sure until the end of month when the Water Control Board meets. In the meantime we will be proceeding with plans and getting all contracts in place so it will be ready to bid if we get the money.”

Since the funds are from federal sources, South said there is still some uncertainty at the state level how they will be used — whether the funds will be loans or grants, and what the terms might be. More should be known after DEQ holds a statewide public hearing on the funding April 15 in Richmond.

The Town of Fries also made the priority list for a $383,650 request for a sewer line replacement to prevent overflows.

While the initial reports are positive for Hillsville, they are not so encouraging for Carroll County. Carroll applied to DEQ for funding for four projects — a $662,900 request for sewer improvements at I-77 Exit 1, a at $1,418,500 request for a sewer extension at I-77 Exit 19, a Cana Sewer Extension request of $2,422,500, and the Fancy Gap Sewer Project with a request of $4,373,650. None of those requests made the priority list. Meanwhile, the City of Lynchburg’s request for $33,430,000 did make the list, accounting for more than a quarter of the total funds that made DEQ’s priority list.

Carroll County Assistant Administrator Ronald Newman said the county was surprised by the priority list as it felt its projects met the required funding criteria.

“We had high hopes of being on their funding list. We thought our projects fell in line with the goals of the stimulus package. When you look at each of the four sewer projects, they all create jobs during construction,” Newman said. “You look at Exit 1, that creates jobs where the Love’s development is going to take place. Exit 19 takes sewer to the Wildwood community, which opens that for development and job creation.

“Cana Sewer both helps saves some jobs because there is some sewer problems, and creation of jobs on land that is primed developable land right on (U.S.) 52. And then with Fancy Gap Sewer, probably the largest impact there would be tourism--related businesses, but you are once again creating jobs and that is the goal of the stimulus package. All four of ours does that both during construction and following.”

The Carroll PSA also applied to the Virginia Health Department for three water projects — Austinville Regional Water, Honeycutt Dam water and Fancy Gap water. PSA Chairman Sam Dickson noted in February that Carroll’s chances didn’t look good as only $21.8 million in federal stimulus funds would be available throughout the state. Newman said the PSA is still awaiting word back from the health department.

The Carroll PSA is also still waiting to hear from federal funding agency Rural Development on several projects. The county has applied to Rural Development for funds for Exit 1 water and sewer, Fancy Gap water and sewer, Honeycutt Dam water, Exit 19 sewer, and Austinville Regional.