AUB HELPING MCMINN RESIDENTS
GET CITY WATER; BAD WELLS ABANDONED

ATHENS, Tenn. - Thanks to a state of Tennessee grant received by McMinn County, and through financial input and construction work by Athens Utilities Board (AUB), several McMinn County residents will now enjoy the benefits of AUB water service, allowing them to abandon use of wells that have tested positive for certain bacteria.

The work is being performed by AUB under a Community Development Block Grant, or CDBG. McMinn County applied for the grant and will fund a portion of the work, and the county commission approved the extension of water lines associated with the work.

“We are absolutely delighted to be doing this work in our community,” said AUB spokesman Wayne Scarbrough. “The eligible recipients get the financial help the grant provides and they trade substandard well water for AUB’s treated, tested, and proven high-quality water.”

AUB begins its work on a water-related CDBG project by testing wells in the subject area, Jill Davis, AUB Water Superintendent, explained.

“When the city or county identifies an area that is well suited for this type of grant, AUB goes into the field and tests local wells to determine if bacteria are present in the water,” Davis said. Results of the tests go into the state’s decision whether to approve the grant, she said.

The current CDBG work is in areas along County Roads 213 and 207 and will involve about 33 homes, Davis said. “We’ve installed main water lines along the route and now have begun providing service lines from the mains to eligible customer’s homes.”

Under the guidelines of the CDBG project, eligible customers do not have to pay the standard utilities tap fee, and AUB constructs service lines from the main water lines to the customer’s home, which normally is the responsibility of the individual customer.

AUB’s next project under this program will include several county roads in the Tranquility community of McMinn County, Scarbrough said. “The grant for this area was applied for by the city of Athens and has been approved by the governor.”

Environmental review and engineering design for the Tranquility project is already under way, Scarbrough said. “Once all of the contracts have been finalized, grant monies can be released and we can move toward the field work portion of the project,” he said.