In late July 2015, the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration announced that they will be awarding a 1.5 million dollar grant to the Village of Salado, Texas to help upgrade water and sewer systems.
The Government is doing this as part of its continued commitment to invest in America’s infrastructure.
The Village of Salado is very thankful for this investment, with its current water infrastructure near-complete ineffectiveness.
KBTX reports:
“EDA’s investment will help construct a waste water plant and sewer lines that will serve the primary business district of the Village. According to the grantee, the existing systems are on the brink of shutting down and have been responsible for business closings, job losses, tourism decline, decreased taxes and revenues, and the inability to draw new businesses. An adequate wastewater system is necessary to accommodate the needs of existing and prospective businesses. Several local companies have already committed to creating and/or preserving jobs as a result of the project.”
It’s really helpful that the government has given this grant to a community that will greatly benefit from it. It is crucial to have effective water infrastructure and to plan to keep up it.
Inframanage.com notes that implementing long-term infrastructure management planning can be invaluable in helping communities understand and manage the costs of infrastructure provision.
Water and wastewater infrastructure are fundamental to underpinning public health, and protecting the environment as can be observed where these systems are not in place or malfunctioning.
Government grants such as the one received by the Village of Salado are often the catalyst to getting water or wastewater infrastructure in place but form only a part of the cost – ongoing operations, maintenance and asset renewal costs will also be significant over time.
Infrastructure management planning assists with both the management of costs, and optimization of long-term expenditure, and predicting where capital expenditure and/or government grants will be required.
PHOTO CREDIT: “Salado, TX welcome sign IMG 2431” by Billy Hathorn – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.
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