Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

MURFREESBORO – Infrastructure projects have been one of the main topics of discussion at Murfreesboro Town Council meetings for a long time. Now a state budget allocation will help them make progress on several of those projects.

State House Representative Bill Ward, who represents Hertford and Gates counties, made a visit to Murfreesboro’s Town Hall on Monday, Oct. 16 to present them with their $4.3 million award to be used for water, sewer, and stormwater projects.

Those funds were included in the new state budget which went into effect on Oct. 3.

“We’re grateful for the appropriation from the General Assembly, and we’re just tickled to death to be able to give this to the town,” Ward said.

“We graciously accept this,” said Mayor Hal Thomas. “It will truly make a difference to the infrastructure of Murfreesboro, and we will continue to move forward as a progressive town in North Carolina.”

Earlier this year, the town submitted a list of potential projects to be addressed by state funding. Those included replacing stormwater sewer lines, replacing water meters, performing additional sewer rehabilitation on priority areas, replacing pipe on N. Third Street (between Main and Williams Streets), and replacing a portion of the water line on Main Street (from Spring Avenue to Moore Street).

Many of these projects will rectify problems that have occurred due to the age of the town’s infrastructure.

According to information provided by the town, there are areas of dilapidated and collapsing stormwater sewer lines throughout the town that suffer from flooding during normal rainfall.

For the water meter project, the town seeks to replace the manual meters – some of which are 25 years old – with newer automatic meters that will provide more accurate readings and free up employees to focus on other tasks.

The town is currently working on sewer rehabilitation thanks to a loan from the NC Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund. But they noted that the current project only addresses a portion of the town’s needs, and these new funds could help continue rehabilitation on priority areas identified through a recent Asset Inventory and Assessment.

The Third Street line that needs to be replaced is an old two-inch pipe subject to frequent line breaks and low-pressure problems. It would be replaced with a six-inch PVC pipe.

The Main Street water line is an eight-inch ductile iron pipe, and one of the oldest in Murfreesboro. During recent repairs, they discovered the line is also rusting and splitting. Like the Third Street line, this one would also be replaced with PVC pipe.

In addition to these projects, the town council also discussed at their Oct. 11 meeting the possibility of using part of the $4.3 million allocation for the Carver Park lift station replacement project. The town will use funds from the NC Clean Water State Revolving Fund for the project, but will still need to pay $468,737 with local funds to cover the remaining costs.

At that same meeting, council member Jay Revelle said he was excited about the $4.3 million allocation which will go “a long ways” in addressing several of the town’s infrastructure needs.

As previously reported by the News Herald, the town council approved a 10-year water and wastewater capital improvement plan at their meeting on Sept. 13. That plan will serve as a guideline for what needs to be addressed over the next decade to keep both systems in good health, and includes several of the aforementioned projects.