Rockdale County was recently awarded $1.06 million in another infusion of the federal stimulus funded Neighborhood Stabilization Grant program for repairing and selling foreclosed homes.

Rockdale NSP Coordinator Tanesha Lanier presented information at the Tuesday Board of Commissioners meeting.about the NSP3 grant, which goes to purchase, fix up and sell foreclosed homes to both moderate and low income buyers that intend to live in the homes. 

The county initially requested about $641,000 and was awarded $1.06 million by the Ga. Department of Community Affairs.

“Because of the county’s performance level, the DCA saw something here that other counties did not take advantage of and was able to provide additional revenues,” said Board of Commissioners Chairman Richard Oden.

“It’s a more closed approach to stabilize subdivisions,” said Lanier, of this round of NSP funding. “It includes about 20-25 subdivisions in the county.”

The NSP3 grant will focus in three areas in the county: neighborhoods around the Heritage High School area, which includes the Sugar Hill subdivision; the area between Honey Creek Road, Troupe Smith, Ga. 20, and Oglesby Bridge Road; and the area between Salem, Ga. 20, and Flat Shoals Road.

The program purchased and sold 25 homes with NSP1 funds. NSP3 will allow the county to buy up to 12 homes initially.

The program provides $14,500 in assistance towards purchasing the home, along with help for closing costs. Buyers must qualify for their own loan.

For more information, go to www.rockdalecounty.org or call (770) 278-7551. Applications can be found at the information desk at the Rockdale County Administration and Services Building, 958 Milstead Avenue Conyers, Ga. 30012.

 Neighboring Covington received a $1.79 million NSP 3 grant to build a proposed 40,000 sq. ft. apartment building and community center in Walker's Bend. The city's original grant application asked for only $1.08 million.

Rockdale’s first NSP grant of $2.7 million was awarded in March 2009.

Georgia received about $154 million in NSP1 funds, and about $3.92 billion was granted nationally for the NSP1 program.

In other BOC business

Pratt-Visy has agreed to pay $181,000 in surcharge for a pre-treatment unit called the Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) unit.

“The UASB, in 2010, had a difficult year in operations,” said Rockdale Water Resources Director Dwight Wicks at the work session. “Pratt, being the good neighbors that they are, are stepping forward to pay these initial charges and not place them on the citizens of Rockdale County.”

In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency issued fines to the county after the pre-treatment unit, which brings the paper plant’s industrial discharge to a level comparable with domestic sewage, failed in February 2010. During that time, full-strength industrial discharge was going directly into the Quigg wastewater treatment plant, which was able to handle the load at first, said Rockdale Water Resources Director Dwight Wicks, in a previous interview. After about two weeks, the plant became overloaded. The UASB also previously failed in 2002.