Weakley County to Receive Portion of $200 Million Governor’s Local Support Grant

NASHVILLE (April 6) — Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced $200 million in grants to be distributed to every county and city government across Tennessee for one-time, local expenses in fiscal year 2021.

“Capital maintenance, public safety and road projects don’t pause for disasters like the March tornadoes and the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Gov. Lee. “This grant fund will ease the burden on local governments as they work to meet infrastructure and safety obligations.”

Weakley County Mayor Jake Bynum said, “We’re excited about the opportunity to have access to State funding that will not only allow us to try to initiate recovery efforts due to COVID-19, but also be able to implement additional work that continues to go on day-in and day-out outside of the virus.”

Grant funding is based on population as published by the US Census Bureau. Each county will receive at least $500,000, and each city or municipality will receive at least $30,000. The three Metro governments (Davidson, Moore and Trousdale) will receive one allocation, whichever is largest. The application will be made available by April 30, 2020, and the funds will be made available after July 1, 2020.

In Weakley County these cities will receive these funds by the state: Dresden with $94,616, Gleason with $60,300, Greenfield with $75,858, Martin with $263,749, and Sharon with $50,259.

Funds may be used for road projects, I.T. upgrades, capital maintenance, utility system upgrades, and public safety projects. Certain disaster-related expenses are also eligible for funding.

One-time expenses related to COVID-19 are eligible including supply and equipment purchase, cleaning, emergency food and shelter programs.