City pursuing FEMA grant for stormwater pipe improvements

JACKSON, Tenn. — Stormwater pipes are getting a spotlight, and for good reason.

“Flooding, tornado, ice storms, any of these disasters, if you have a hazard mitigation program, you can apply for hazard mitigation grants,” said Sharon Smith, Admin. Assist. Grant Writing Program, Stormwater Operations. “So under this, we have listed several of our areas in Jackson that are under this hazard mitigation program.”

The City of Jackson plans to turn in the application on six major areas of stormwater pipes into the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program by the end of March.

“It’s going to get us a chance to make sure that we don’t lose, you know, our pipes, our stormwater pipes,” Smith said. “People don’t understand that when it rains, we’re not only getting the heavy rains that are coming in, but we are also getting the rains that are coming from the high areas, because we are in such a low lying area.”

The pipes are located throughout Jackson on Woodruff Street, Old Hickory Boulevard, Hanover Drive, Executive Drive, Chesswood Boulevard and Briarcliff Boulevard.

“Hopefully we will be able to fund these projects and get them done,” Smith said. “Because we’re at a point now where, you know, you do maintenance and maintenance and maintenance, and then it comes to the point where after a big disaster… And one of the biggest disasters that we had that did a lot of damage to the storm pipes was a flood. You know we have a lot of flooding.”

If approved, the City of Jackson plans to start the projects in October of this year.

Click here to view the full notice on the application.

For more news in the Jackson area, click here.