news-record.com

WHITSETT -- Town officials are hopeful that the state will give Whitsett grant money for a water system for residents with contaminated wells.

Last winter Whitsett was not chosen for a Community Development Block Grant to pay to connect the affected houses to the Burlington-owned water line running along U.S. 70.

But the grant is looking more likely for Whitsett during this round of funding, town officials said Tuesday after meeting with a Department of Commerce official and engineering firm Davis-Martin-Powell & Associates.

"It's kind of hopeful," Mayor Richard Fennel said. "We'll keep our fingers crossed."

Also, towns don't have to provide 5 percent matching funds for the grant like they did for the last round of grants. Whitsett is applying for the maximum grant of $750,000.

The town will have a public hearing on the grant application on Sept. 8, and Town Council members want people with contaminated wells to attend. Some wells in Whitsett have been contaminated by petroleum from leaking underground storage tanks.