Twin City awarded over $300,000 in new grant funding

At the August meeting of the City Commission of Twin City, Mayor Matt Donaldson announced the city had been awarded $313,279 in new grant awards.

The first grant is the FEMA Assistance for Firefighters Grant (AFG) of $289,279.00 for the purchase of new fire department equipment and turnout gear for the volunteer firefighters. Last year, Twin City was awarded $428,000.00 in grant funding for the purchase of a new fire truck. The City has ordered the new fire truck, and it should be delivered late this year or early next year. The grant funding for this year will equip that new fire truck when it arrives. Over the past 12 months, Twin City has been awarded over $717,000 in grant funding to improve the Twin City Fire Department. Mayor Donaldson said, “With the new fire truck and new equipment for the fire truck funded, we hope these investments in our fire services will provide benefits to the people of Twin City. We are actively working to improve our ISO (Insurance Services Office) fire rating. With a lower ISO rating, this should lower the property insurance premiums for our citizens”.

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In the second grant award, Donaldson announced the city has been awarded $24,000 from the USDA SEARCH (Special Evaluation Assistance for Rural Communities and Households) Grant. This grant will fund an engineering study and plan for the city sewerage system. Donaldson said, “Our current system was installed in the 1980s, so we need to consider some upgrades. The new grant award will fund that study of those upgrades.”

In other business, the City Commission approved adding Sandridge Road to the list of resurfacing projects. In the June 2024 meeting, the city approved to resurface Rountree Avenue and Ward Street as well. These projects will be combined with the City’s T-SPLOST resurfacing projects of: W. Broad Street, Old Swainsboro Road, Parrish Pond Road, 1st Avenue, Wilson Road, and Coursey Road. In total, these (9) roads will be resurfaced in late 2024 or early 2025. This is in addition to the (13) roads resurfaced in early 2024. Donaldson said, “We are aggressively working our resurfacing plans to get our roads in a better condition. In a span of about 18 months, the City will have resurfaced (22) roads in the city limits or about 50% of the total road miles in Twin City.”

In other business, the City Commission approved the contract with Turnipseed Engineers to complete the sewer engineering study, approved the invoice for the Church Street well and pump replacement, held a public hearing for a business license application, approved the 2023 audit report, and reviewed the first draft of the recodified code of ordinances.