Tracy City Wins Clean Energy Grant

Tracy City is among the 38 communities that received word on June 15 that it has been awarded a $125,000 grant by the Clean Tennessee Energy program. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Commissioner Bob Martineau announced more than $3.1 million to fund energy efficiency projects for local governments and municipalities, utilities and state entities across Tennessee.

Tracy City’s grant was awarded for a proposal to conduct a major retrofit at the South Cumberland Learning and Development Center, which is being developed on the site of the old Grundy County High School. The project will consist of new HVAC units, more ceiling insulation and caulking exterior windows. 

The building was constructed in 1937 and is currently vacant. Additionally, the project is being implemented under the direction of the U.S. Department of Energy as “Energy Savers” for construction and renovation.

The various improvements will result in an estimated 30 percent reduction in annual kWh consumption, and an estimated $10,000 a year in monetary savings. An estimated 467 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced from the atmosphere.

“Clean Tennessee Energy grants fund projects that help our communities become more energy-efficient while providing long-term cost savings for taxpayers,” Haslam said. “I want to thank all of these groups for their commitment to improving our communities, our environment and our state.”

The grant program provides financial assistance to eligible entities in Tennessee to purchase, install and construct environmental mitigation projects, and this is the largest amount of funding that has been allocated from the grant program since its inception.

Funding for the projects comes from an April 2011 Clean Air Act settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority. Under the Consent Decree, Tennessee will receive $26.4 million over five years to fund clean-air programs in the state. 

To date, TDEC has reimbursed roughly $6.1 million in funding to grantees for a variety of innovative projects to reduce environmental impacts and operating costs at sites of new construction and sites with aging infrastructure.

For more information go to <www.tn.gov/environment/energygrants/>.

Reincarnation of Old GCHS in Tracy City -- A Dream on the Verge of Coming True

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

What had seemed like a lost cause may soon become a reality with reincarnation of the old Grundy County High School building in Tracy City as the South Cumberland Learning and Development Center. The center will focus on workforce development, helping local people get ready for local work by providing the skills needed to fill jobs in Grundy County and the surrounding vicinity. Julie Willems Keel, associate executive director of Mountain T.O.P., a local nonprofit agency, and Emily Partin, a Grundy County native, serve as project co-chairs. But the story that gave birth to the initiative, an effort plagued with obstacles and misfortune, began long before Partin and Keel became involved.

In 2006, the Southeast Development District of Chattanooga applied for a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) on behalf of Tracy City to establish a trade school in the old high school building. Grundy County mayor LaDue Bouldin spearheaded the effort on the local level, along with Tracy City mayor Barry Rollins. ARC awarded Tracy City $500,000 with the city required to supply $100,000 in matching funds.

With the grant in place, oversight fell to the Tracy City mayor, but Rollins was not re-elected, and his successor died in office. The onset of the 2008 recession left Grundy County struggling with day-to-day survival, and efforts focused on programs meeting immediate needs, such as the Grundy County Food Bank.

Keel’s work with Mountain T.O.P. stresses capacity-building for groups awarded grants for community development.

“It’s not uncommon for small communities to be granted large sums without a mechanism in place for planning and implementing the project,” Keel said.

Keel credits Emily Partin with reviving the ARC grant and getting the project back on track.

As a mental health professional, Partin worked off the Mountain until a job with the Grundy County School system brought her back home. Partin first learned about the ARC grant in 2011 from Tracy City mayor Jimmy Campbell. Campbell didn’t know the status of the grant. He was in ill health and soon after, resigned from office. Then in early 2012 at a Grundy County Rotary Club meeting, a visitor asked if Tracy City intended to pursue the project outlined in the ARC grant. The visitor was Tara Nichols, a representative from the Southeast Development District (SDD), the organization that had originally applied for the grant on Tracy City’s behalf.

Partin met with Nichols and took her to visit the old high school. The original grant was to cover the cost of a roof for the library wing of the school and to purchase equipment to teach carpentry skills. In the six intervening years, water damage to the library wing rendered it irreparable. Nichols insisted the money could not be used for other purposes, but Partin persuaded her to request the grant be refocused to fund renovation of the front portion of the building for use in technical education rather than as a trade school.

Unfortunately, Nichols left SDD, and her successor served only a short time, relocating to another state before he succeeded in getting authorization to repurpose the grant. But, finally, in the summer of 2014 the granting agency, ARC, gave permission for the funds to be used to renovate the front portion of the building.

Bid requests went out for the project for window repair; upgrading the wiring, technical specifications, and heating and cooling unit; and installation of a required sprinkler system. Then doom again reared its head. All the bids came back dramatically over budget. There just wasn’t enough money.

Almost coincidentally, though, another door opened. Grundy County officials completed a Community Development Block Grant project, making the county eligible to apply for another grant. On Jan. 26, 2015, the County Commission voted to apply for a $315,000 Block Grant to flesh out the budget for the old high school project. Partin also plans to apply for a grant to help offset the cost of window repair and the heating and cooling unit.

Partin and Keel have secured pledges to cover 100 percent of the $100,000 in matching grant money, with donors ranging from the South Cumberland Community Fund to individuals pledging in-kind contributions in the form of labor.