It won’t quite fit in the mailbox. But the big check is here.
Madison County leaders received a long-awaited $500,000 grant from the OneGeorgia Authority last week for the Hull-area commercial sewer system, which will be constructed to boost business in the southern end of the county.
Leaders hope to have that system online by the end of the year. They say that the system is crucial in increasing the county’s commercial tax base, which will help ease the tax burden on property owners.
“We’ve worked on this (the OneGeorgia grant) for quite some time and we finally got approval,” said industrial authority executive director Marvin White.
The grant will help cover the cost of the $3.3 million system. The IDA is also paying for the project with a $1.6 million loan from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority, another $750,000 in sales tax funds and a $335,000 contribution from Ingles, whose Hwy. 29 facility will be served by the sewer system.
Architects for Ingles told White that they planned to upgrade the facility from 60,000 to 80,000 square feet. Those expansion plans were mentioned in the governor’s press release about the grant last week.
However, the firm that informed the IDA of Ingles’ plans no longer works for the organization. And White said he’s not sure how the expansion plans stand at the moment, particularly given the state of the economy.
Nevertheless, White notes that Ingles has had sewage problems at its Hwy. 29 facility. And the business is waiting on the completion of the commercial sewer system, regardless of its expansion plans. The veterans clinic just south of Ingles will also tie in to the sewage system once it is completed.
“It was really good to get this,” said White of the grant.
