Boucher said the USDA’s Rural Development federal funding agency has awarded the Carroll PSA with a grant of $155,000, in addition to a low-interest federal loan of $183,000. He said the federal funds will allow Carroll to install 9,700 feet of water lines along Honeycutt Dam Road to provide public water service to 33 homes. Currently, these homes rely on private wells which, in some cases, have very low water yields and poor water quality.
“Adequate and reliable public water service is essential to maintaining Southwest Virginia’s excellent quality of life and to achieving our economic development goals for the region,” Boucher said. “Today’s announcement will assist our ongoing work to expand water and wastewater systems throughout the region.”
Senator Jim Webb said many of the wells on Honeycutt Dam Road have low water yields and present health hazards with high concentrations of iron and manganese in the water supply.
“This project funding is welcome news for residents in Carroll County to ensure access to safe, dependable drinking water while also saving and creating jobs in the community,” Webb said.
Carroll County Administrator Gary Larrowe, who also serves as Carroll’s PSA Director, said the Authority is exceptionally excited the Honeycutt Dam water project will become a reality. He said the PSA has been working on the project since December of 2008, when the Authority completed a list of potential projects.
“At that time Carroll County was recognized as being the best prepared county in Virginia to take advantage of the funding opportunities of the Recovery Act funding by Virginia Association of Counties Chairman Jim Campbell and Rural Development,” Larrowe said. “Now, it is past planning, we have projects going in the ground and we can add Honeycutt Dam to the list. This area has needed water for many years and had been on the list to have the water system installed under a previous administration.”
The Honeycutt Dam Road project is the fifth project in which Carroll has received ARRA funding in the past seven months. In April, Carroll received $1.9 million in federal funding for the construction of a new wastewater system at Wildwood Commerce Park at Exit 19 off Interstate 77. Later that month, the Carroll PSA was awarded more than $6.2 million in federal funding to go toward the Austinville Regional Water project. Carroll also received nearly $2.9 million in federal funding for water and wastewater projects off Interstate 77 in Lambsburg and Wildwood in June, then another $8,062,000 for new wastewater and public water systems in Fancy Gap in September.
“The current Board of Supervisors and the PSA are thrilled at the funding mix that is being made. Carroll County has been exceptionally active in getting those stimulus dollars imported to Carroll County where they can benefit our citizens and the future development of the community,” Larrowe said. “These type of activities do not happen on their own. Many thanks goes out to Travis Jackson and Robert Hilt at Rural Development and their staff, along with the Congressional Office. However, much gratitude needs to be directed to the forward thinking Carroll County Public Service Authority and staff under the leadership of Sam Dickson and the Board of Supervisors under the leadership of David Hutchins. It is amazing what can be accomplished when it does not matter who gets the credit.”
Hutchins said the Honeycutt Dam project has been one of his priorities since he took office as a supervisor in October of 2006.
“That is a project I have been working on since 2007 and it is well-deserved,” Hutchins said. “I am so thankful we had the stimulus dollars to do it.”
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