Booker pushing for sewer service for the rest of Arco – Brunswick News

Sewer service may be on its way to the Arco neighborhood in the next few years if a cooperative effort works out between Glynn County Commissioner Allen Booker and the Brunswick-Glynn Joint Water and Sewer Commission.

From my understanding they do not (all have sewer), a lot of places have septic, Booker said. I know my district, I know people that live over there and dont have sewer.

Booker is proposing to use money from the Community Development Block Grant to get the job done.

Ive asked them to work with us to go after a CDBG grant to run water and sewer, to expand it over into Arco, Booker said.

According to the countys grant writer, Monica Hardin, the grant covers a number of things, including water and sewer expansion into low-income areas. The grant, worth $750,000, must be used for activities that help low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, according to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Departments website.

Nothing will be done this year, however, as the deadline for applying for the grant has passed. The deadline for the next block grant is April 2018, Hardin said.

Utility Executive Director Jimmy Junkin said its still early in the conversation, but the JWSC is already considering some more modern techniques to keep the projects cost within the budget they will have available. If they can do the work with the money from the grant, they will seriously look at moving forward with the project.

Using the sewer system will not be mandatory. According to the countys ordinances, someone is only required to tap in if they are building a new structure or significantly altering an existing one within 500 feet of a sewer line.

This effort to expand the sewer system is part of a larger push by Booker to fight poverty in Arco, a neighborhood which mostly just outside of the Brunswick city limits. Booker said he has already met with members of county staff to put together a preliminary plan to start doing more to improve the neighborhood.

He said Hardin had already been successful in securing a grant for rehabilitating three parks in the neighborhood to give residents access to more outdoor activities.

Along with the renovations to parks and expansion of sewer infrastructure, Booker is also looking to get the residents personally involved in their neighborhood through an Arco planning assembly. The assembly would organize tasks such as community cleanups.

Booker said most of his plan is still preliminary, and that he will elaborate further as it comes together.

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Booker pushing for sewer service for the rest of Arco - Brunswick News