By Taylor Boyd
Officials with the Town of Stuart submitted expenses for its share of the CARES Act funding at a Dec. 16 meeting with the Patrick County CARES Committee to ensure the funds were spent according to the guidelines.
“It seems like we’re in line and like everything’s going to be good, and we won’t have to worry about it right now,” Town Manager Terry Tilley said of the town’s $214,510 allocation. “I think we’ll get the money spent and everything looks good on that.”
The funds were spent “pretty much for the sewer plant that was not covered in our original project,” Mayor Ray Weiland said, and added the town would spend more on the project than what it was allotted under the CARES Act.
Expenses not covered by CARES money are “going to have to come out of town funds,” he said, and estimated that will be between $5,000 and $10,000.
“We did ask for an additional $75,000, but apparently they’ve already spent their money. They’ve went through their own CARES Act money already. We shot for one other part of a project we had in our back pocket just in case they had some additional money left over. We asked and it wasn’t there,” Weiland said.
In other reports, Tilley said the road to the wastewater treatment plant has been fixed.
“It really looks good. It goes all the way to the plant,” he said, adding a new waterline was installed to the plant.
A change order was needed on parts of the plant.
“The old line that was in there was put in in 1975. The reducing valve was not up to standard so we had to change that,” Tilley said. He estimates the cost of the change order was around $15,000, with the press reducing valve at about $5,000 of the total cost.
Weiland said water bills did not go out.
“They were brought to the post office, but they never made it out,” he said, adding he thinks the bills are possibly still in transit.
Tilley estimated the town cut off “about 16 or 17” customers the day before.
Leon Puckett, who had served on the Town Council since 2013, attended his final meeting.
Erica Cipko will begin her term in January.
Dean Goad did not attend the meeting.
