The Spruce Pine Town Council voted last week to accept an almost $5 million grant from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to help pay for improved water infrastructure.
"It's essentially the $5 million grant that we applied for to do the elevated water storage tank out at Grassy Creek, the infrastructure that would be required to get water to that tank, the booster pump for the Deer Park Road area, the upgrades to the cemetery tank up here, and also new lines for the Pine and Spruce Avenue residents at the top of town," Town Manager Daniel Stines said. "We'll be putting in a new six-inch line to serve those residents to replace our tem-porary fixes we did here just a few months ago. So the permanent fix was what I was referring to at that time."
Several residents of the higher elevation neighborhoods in Spruce Pine lost water pressure for several weeks this winter, requiring a temporary line to be put in.
Willis Street Culvert
The council also voted to hire Phillips Grading to repair a culvert on Willis Street. The contract is for $135,455, and will be funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Stines said that Phillips submitted the lowest bid.
"These are repairs related to FEMA dollars and FEMA recovery," Stines said. "Phillips Grading was the lowest and most responsive bidder."
Town Logo
Stines noted that minor revisions have been made to the town's logo, in response to complaints that the logo is inconsistent in different places. "A lot of staff, and also a lot of residents, honestly, have been bringing to my attention a lot of inconsistencies with our logo," Stines said. "And one is, like the example behind us, doesn't truly depict the original Spruce Pine Spruce Tree, which was the one that's located in front of the English Inn from way times back."