GREENVILLE—The City of Greenville was presented with a $1.44 million Ohio BUILDS Water Infrastructure Grant on Thursday morning by Lieutenant Governor John Husted.
The grant is a part of the Ohio BUILDS Project, which is a program that has awarded $250 million to help fund 83 projects in all of Ohio’s 88 counties. The Ohio BUILDS Water Infrastructure grants are a continuation of Governor DeWine’s H2Ohio initiative, which launched in 2019 to focus on ensuring plentiful, clean, and safe water for communities across the state.
The funds will help fund the replacement two existing transmission mains that were installed in 1893, a section of main line that was installed in 1926. There will still be a redundancy with a 16 inch water line that will run north from the water plant to town.
The new water line will start at the plant and go down OH-502 to West Main Street, from there it will split and tie into the 18 inch water line on Chestnut Street, the 12 inch water line on West Fourth Street and the 12 inch line on West Main Street. This will encompass where the water line break occurred in 2019. The project will benefit 19,507 citizens.
Lieutenant Governor Husted spoke to attendees in the council chambers alongside Mayor of Greenville Steve Willman and water superintendent Gary Evans.
“This is what we should be spending infrastructure money on,” he said. “It’s projects like this, that help serve people and that will also help make ends meet on resources that you do have to do the bigger work on your entire water system.”
Mayor Willman expressed his gratitude for the grant. He said that not only will the grant improve the lives of citizens, but it will help the city out financially.
“Water is always at the forefront of any future planning, particularly when our residents have to pay the price,” he said. “It’s always a struggle to plan what the city needs but be able to have the revenue to pay for it. Being able to replace this water line allows us to take a big step ahead in our timeline and plan for the next projects to keep our community safe and healthy.”
