Lake Santeetlah – Through hard work and optimism, a local municipality will soon receive a substantive amount of money to complete much-needed repairs.
The Town of Lake Santeetlah’s Finance Officer Tina Emerson, Town Technician Scott Kamps and Mayor Connie Gross combined forces to apply for a grant from the Rocky Mount-based Golden LEAF Foundation, to help curb drainage issues on several roads in the town.
Golden LEAF announced its annual winners Aug. 3, with Lake Santeetlah being afforded $72,697 through North Carolina’s Flood Mitigation Program. Golden LEAF was appropriated $25 million for the line item; $1,368,100 was shelled out for projects in Brunswick, Cumberland, Gaston, Graham, Henderson, Jones, Roberson, Sampson, Transylvania and Wake counties.
“I’m still in shock and extremely grateful,” Gross told The Graham Star in a Saturday email. “I couldn’t be more proud of Tina and Scott for everything they did to make this possible.
“I am especially thankful to Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Macon) for sharing the information about the Golden LEAF Foundation with us. I’m so pleased for our town and how much this will benefit the community.”
Lake Santeetlah has discussed the application process and its necessity during recent council meetings, with Emerson showing optimism when providing updates. The town has troublesome spots in four combined areas on Santeetlah, Thunderbird and Black Bear trails, where ditches are simply unable to properly divert stormwater off the roadway and into culverts.
In turn, significant erosion has made shoulders on the roads almost non-existent. Gross dubbed the effort a “shovel-ready project” and expressed a desire to see the efforts completed in a swift manner.
Emerson told the Star in a Saturday reply to the news that representatives from Golden LEAF paid a visit to Lake Santeetlah in July to assess the damage.
“The visit by the Golden LEAF team enabled them to see first-hand the effect heavy rains have on our ditches and roads,” said Emerson. “Scott provided invaluable information and support by evaluating the roads and ditches, and explaining our problem to the Golden LEAF grant team on their visit. Scott will be working with the paving company and directing the work that this grant will allow us to do.”
Emerson added that the ditches will be paved to help with the drainage process, noting that Lake Santeetlah receives around 61 inches a year – citing the national average hovers around 38 inches.
The town is no stranger to tackling drainage projects, as over $50K was spent last year on sections of Black Bear and Thunderbird trails. Following the repairs, Emerson said Lake Santeetlah set up a capital reserve fund specifically for road paving.