Still more state funding for private expansion, this time in Lexington:
Morton Metalcraft, a Welcome-based sheet metal fabricator, gained approval Tuesday night from the Davidson County Board of Commissioners to apply for a Small Cities Community Development Block Grant through the N.C. Department of Finance.
The application comes after a year that saw the company add jobs and expand its 180,000-square-foot facility on Salem Road by an additional 13,000 square feet….
The new grant, requested for an amount of $198,450, would pay for further sewer work, helping the company tap into the City of Lexington’s sewer system via a 2,600-foot extension of services along Old U.S. Highway 52. That change is needed because the on-site septic system is insufficient to handle the recent facility expansion.
Should Morton receive the grant, the county would provide matching funds of $75,578 while Morton itself will pick up the remaining $32,000. The total cost of the sewer project is estimated at $306,028.
But……
County resident Barney W. Hill spoke out against the block grant in part, he asserted, because the sewer project was not qualified for it. He cited as evidence a CDBG guideline stating that any project to which a beneficiary is already economically committed will be deemed ineligible for funds. Since the project necessitating the sewer line extension – the factory expansion – was already complete, Hill said, the county should not approve the submission of the grant application.
So Morton Metalcraft can afford the toilets. They just can’t afford to flush them.
