The Town of Ridgeway has received a Community Infrastructure Grant of $234,274 to extend public water service down Highway 21 towards Blythewood, Mayor Charlene Herring announced this week.
The grant, awarded by the Community Development Block Grant Program and supported by the Central Midlands Council of Governments, is a major source of funding for the project, slated to begin before the end of the year. Combined with other funding sources, the grant will keep Ridgeway from having to borrow money for the project.
Current service ends at Longleaf Road, but the new water lines will connect households outside of town limits to public water, serving streets such as Angle Drive, Carolina Drive, and Auxillary Drive.
It will be up to residents themselves to decide whether to use town water, and according to Herring, the availability of town water “will greatly improve the quality of life for folks in the surrounding community.”
Part of the town’s qualification for the grant rests on the fact that the outskirts of Ridgeway has a number of homes on antiquated wells with low quality water.
HUD describes the CDBG Program as a “flexible program that provides communities with resources to address a wide range of unique community development needs.”
One of the main requirements for CDBG applicants is to seek public input and citizen participation. Town of Ridgeway employees and council members conducted door-to-door surveys to determine the level of need for public water service.
“This is very exciting news for Ridgeway,” said Herring. “We are grateful to everyone at the Community Development Block Grant Program, in particular Cynthia Gawronski who wrote the grant and helped us pursue it, and see it through. We are very blessed.”
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