by Trish Rudder
They say the third time’s the charm.
At the Town of Bath council meeting on July 5, Mayor Scott Merki authorized the submission of a third Community Development Block Grant – Small Cities application to the West Virginia Development Office for $1.5 million. The grant would pay for the new public water lines.
The town council applied for these funds in 2016 and 2017.
Bill Clark, executive director of the Eastern Panhandle Regional Planning and Development Council (Region 9), who will handle the application process, said the application has to be submitted by July 31.
The town-owned water department, Berkeley Springs Water Works, has committed $500,000 to support and engineer the project, Merki had said, to round out the $2 million estimated project cost.
The water line replacement areas are Cornelius Avenue, Merrywoods Drive, Johnson Mill Road and Berryville.
The project is “shovel ready,” Merki said.
The town would not know the outcome of the grant request until sometime in the fall, he said after the meeting.
