TELLICO PLAINS-The town of Tellico Plains has been awarded a $500,000 grant to continue to address water loss issues.

Brooxie Carlton, director of the Tennessee Office of Federal Programs, notified Mayor Patrick Hawkins on Monday that Gov. Bill Haslam had approved the town's 2012 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) application. The town applied for the grant in February.

"We're very excited to have received the grant," said Hawkins. "This is a project that will really, really help us control our water loss."

With funds from the grant, the town will replace the current water meters and install automatic read meters.

"We have some meters that are 30 years old and this is something that needed to be done," said Hawkins. "It's a huge project for us that there is no way we could fund on our own without the help of this grant."

Evan Sanders of Community Development Partners will serve as the administrator for this project and Bruce Spaulding of Joel B. Spaulding & Company will provide engineering services for the project.

According to raw numbers pulled through City Hall, there was a 50 percent loss of water between July 2010 and June 2011. Replacing the water meters in the city would decrease that amount, Sanders told the Tellico Plains city board at their November 2011 meeting.  

See full story in the Wednesday, Nov. 7, edition of The Advocate & Democrat.