Grant funding sought for Tazewell County flood project
If the state funding is approved, the project would allow the county to take steps now to prepare for future flooding and other disasters.
The board has set a public hearing for April 29 at the Cedar Bluff Town Hall to receive input on a Community Development Block Grant application for the project, Tazewell County Administrator Eric Young said.
Young said there is $5 million available statewide in Community Development Block Grant funding, but in order to qualify for a potential grant award, a public hearing must be held first by the county.
The project envisioned for Tazewell County is comprehensive, and would involve the Richlands, Doran, Raven, Bandy and Cedar Bluff areas, according to a legal advertisement in the Daily Telegraph.
The project involves a monitoring of water levels along the Bluestone and Clinch Rivers and the purchase and installation of generators for water pumps and stations, which would help to power community shelters and water pump stations in the event of another disaster or outage.
Tazewell County has experienced several floods in recent years, including the Feb. 15 storm and the Memorial Day 2023 flood. But when the remnants of Hurricane Helene slammed into the county last September, thousands were left without power for more than a week.
Young said the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development recently announced a one-time state-wide urgent need flood relief grant program.
'There is $5 million available statewide,' Young said of the grant funding. 'The application process requires a hearing. We are applying for generators to help power community shelters and water pump stations.'
Young said power outages across the county were widespread after Helene last fall.
'Our strategy of deploying mobile generators to those pump stations had problems,' Young said. 'First everywhere was without power. So we did not have enough generators. Second we could not access the pump station sites due to trees in the roads. This grant would assure that we had new generators at each pump station.'
Having generators installed at pump stations will ensure that citizens won't run out of drinking water in the event of another major storm or disaster, Young said.
The project also seeks to add telemetry beacons.
'The beacons are cellular based,' Young said. 'They would report water levels in tributaries of the Bluestone and Clinch. Hydrological modeling and AI would then tell us how much time we had before the river left its banks down stream. This would be critical in determining where and when to deploy rescue crews.'
Another part of the project involves rental assistance for those displaced by the February floods.
'They were primarily in the western end of the county,' Young said of individuals displaced by the Feb. 15 flood. 'That is why we decided to have the hearing in Cedar Bluff. But anyone who was displaced would be eligible.'
Young said the board is hopeful that it will be approved for funding.
'There is only $5 million available statewide, so we are not sure how much funding we will get from this round,' Young said. 'Last week the governor announced a separate round of flood funding this summer of $50 million. We will apply for that as well when the application period opens.'
Contact Charles Owens at
cowens@bdtonline.com
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