Byrdstown securing a $540,000 Tennessee housing grant to fund home improvements and new construction for residents in need.
Byrdstown Mayor Sam Gibson said the funding will assist older residents and large families who require significant repairs to their residences. Gibson said the state is currently reviewing seven applications to determine which projects will receive priority based on a ranking system.
“We expect to do maybe a couple of new houses here in town or four or five upgrades,” Gibson said, “Or a combination you know, if you’ve only got one house, then you can do a couple of three updates, depending on how much those are, so It’s going to be able to benefit a few people right here.”
Gibson said the state uses a point system to evaluate the applications and establish a list of recipients. The city will follow that order to distribute the funds until the grant is exhausted.
“You just start at the top and you keep going and going until that all that money’s used up,” Gibson said. “They confirm everything that’s there.”
Gibson said the city previously utilized a similar grant five years ago to build two new homes and complete two upgrades. Rising construction costs mean the current funding may not cover as many projects as the previous cycle.
“We’ll take it as far as it will can anyway,” Gibson said. “But and then we could possibly in after this has runs its course, yeah you can always reapply this is a recurring grant.”
In other business, Gibson said the city also appointed John Keisling and Johnny Sales to represent the municipality on the fire department board. The board includes representatives from the city, Pickett County, and the fire department itself.
“We were trying to get a couple of to start to serve on it for for the next term,” Gibson said. “Pickett county provides a couple, we provide two, and then the fire department provides a couple more.”
