Town of Biscoe Will Seek Grants ♥

Published in the Courier-Tribune on February 15, 2011

by Hugh Martin

BISCOE — Biscoe commissioners approved grant applications Monday for a wastewater treatment plant report and a paved path for safe access to local schools.

The first resolution was to seek grant funding assistance from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Construction Grants and Loans Section for the town’s wastewater treatment plant preliminary engineering report.

The grant, in the amount of $50,000, would fund 100 percent of the cost of the report, which would “assess the technical and administrative obstacles and constraints with upgrading their wastewater treatment plant to obtain compliance such that costs for repair and upgrade can be determined and improvements made.”

Biscoe Town Manager Brooks Lockhart informed the board that the grant had been applied for previously without success. The Hobbs & Upchurch engineering firm of Southern Pines which is working with the town, suggested the town reapply for the grant.

The second grant request was for a Safe Routes to School project, which would be funded entirely by the N.C. Department of Transportation for a total of $159,500 with no cost to the town.

The Safe Route project would be the installation of a five-foot-wide paved path that would extend from the intersection of Cedar Creek Road and U.S. 220 Business for a distance of 2,600 feet to the entrance driveway of East Montgomery High School. The path would follow the right-of-way of the Aberdeen, Carolina & Western Railroad. A similar grant request was made in 2009, but was not funded.

The project is intended to provide a safe access for walkers and bicyclists to the campuses of Green Ridge Elementary, East Montgomery High and East Middle Schools. All three schools are adjacent, with a road connecting the middle and high schools, but no route in place between the elementary and high schools.

Commissioner John Beard questioned how the project would benefit Green Ridge Elementary, since there is no current access to that school from the proposed project.

Lockhart responded that there is a possibility that a greenway could be constructed between the schools along a sewer right-of-way that is already in place.

In other business, Mayor Jimmy Blake, Commissioners Beard, Jerry Smith, Mike Criscoe, Gene Anderson and Jimmy Cagle:

Approved two resolutions, the first in support of dissolving the Piedmont Triad Council of Governments, the second in support of forming the Piedmont Triad Regional Council.
The new council would bring in members from the Northwest Piedmont Council of Government, which would bring the total of counties up to 12 from the current seven. Mayor Blake stated that the membership fee for the new council would go down from $650 a year to $500 a year.

“It will be a good thing for economic development,” Blake said.

The board retired to closed session to discuss personnel and a possible real estate transaction, but no action was taken.