A congressional delegation visited on September 14, to present the Town of Stuart with a $1.1 million check from the Congressionally Directed Spending Program for local water resilience and reliability upgrades.
“You’ve got the only municipal system here in the county and Stuart,” U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said at the check presentation ceremony held Saturday, at the Stuart Volunteer Fire Department. “My understanding, at least, is if you have a power outage, not only does that system shut down for Stuart, but it also shuts down across the whole county.”
Warner added that he also thinks no one really focuses on the intricacies of water systems unless they are directly involved with it, or they turn on the faucet and water doesn’t come out.
“What we are doing with this $1.1 million of federal funds is making sure that Stuart, and by extension all of Patrick County, has that resilience and backup so people in the event of shutdowns are still going to have that access to water,” he said.
Ninth District U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith explained that funds from Congressionally Directed Spending are earmarked funds that federal representatives decide how to spend. “It’s just directing that money out of what is already going to be spent. The money that we’re announcing is something that we all worked on together, it’s something that will affect this community in a positive way,” he said.
Stuart Town Manager Bryce Simmons said the funds are allocated by congress to specific projects that are important to the security and well-being of local communities.
“This spending should be seen as an investment in the long-term function of the services and the infrastructure that our local government is tasked with providing. The efforts to secure these funds deserve to be celebrated as clear, bipartisan support for the citizens of the Town of Stuart and our larger service area of Patrick County,” he said.
Noting that when Stuart has a water leak, he’s often said, “it doesn’t matter if you vote red, blue, green, or purple, the expectation is that the problem will be fixed and paid for,” and as a result, Simmons said it was only fitting to acknowledge that both Warner, D-Alexandria, and Griffith, R-Salem, supported the water resilience and reliability initiative for passage in the appropriations bill.
“This initiative looks to provide increased water and waste-water security for the residents of the community by developing backed up power systems for our existing water and waste-water infrastructure, and to complete the engineering needed to serve additional customers in town and along the highway 58 corridor,” he said.
Simmons emphasized that it cannot be understated that the funds will help to keep the most critical infrastructure in the combined localities of Patrick County and the Town of Stuart operational during any real or perceived emergency situations.
“The Town of Stuart owns and maintains the only municipal water and waste-water treatment systems within the county, which serves the high school (Patrick County High School), two elementary schools, all community healthcare facilities, the designated emergency shelter, three separate industrial areas, and the area’s largest volunteer fire department,” he said.
Knowing that these facilities will be well-served even beyond his tenure as Town Manager is a blessing that’s hard to describe, Simmons said.
Mayor Ray Weiland said the town is pleased to accept the $1.1 million check that will help cover its ongoing infrastructure improvements.
“We know that this $1.1 million investment of federal funding will continue to support water and waste-water infrastructure in Patrick County, and especially here in the Town of Stuart. Our town could not accomplish the many projects that we have completed over the years without this kind of funding help,” he said.
The check, Weiland said, represents more than half of Stuart’s yearly budget, and without it, the town would not be able to afford the needed upgrades to its systems.
“Using state and federal funding opportunities for improvements, we have accomplished over the years giving our town a drinking water plant that continues to provide our community with an ample supply of clean and reliable drinking water, a waste-water plant that is now operating beautifully with modern equipment that guarantees our discharge in the Mayo River is cleaner than the actual river water,” he said, adding the funding has also made possible the Stuart Fire Department building, Patrick & Henry Community College’s (P&HCC) Gerald L. Baliles and Richard S. Reynolds, Sr. Learning Center, and other projects.
Weiland said many projects over the years have helped Stuart become better than it ever was.
“Senator Warner and Congressman Griffith – thank you both for working together to help rural communities across Virginia. This is how the government is supposed to work for the benefit of all the people, and not just the more densely populated parts of the county. We need your continued support in developing creative policies and funding for the public health and safety needs of rural Virginia,” the mayor said.
James Houchins, the county’s director of Economic Development and Tourism, said “It is wonderful to work with the town of Stuart, and we also know that all of the successes that you see happening in Stuart actually reflects on the County of Patrick.”
Houchins said one of his goals is for increased collaboration between the county and town, and he believes the project and check are steps in the right direction.
“We’re very fortunate for it. There’s a lot of other things that we’re trying to get worked out. But again, having Washington (D.C.) on our side when it comes to infrastructure, when it comes to water and sewer, is very important because we know the infrastructure is what’s important again for us to be able to grow,” he said.
