County Receives $7 Million from State to Make Big Utilities Improvements
The money will go to the town of Rosman to expand water and sewer capacity, especially in the Rosman Highway corridor. The city of Brevard and Dupont State Recreational Forest also received funding.
BREVARD — A $7 million allocation in the new North Carolina budget will help Transylvania County start clearing one of its biggest and most persistent economic-development roadblocks: A widespread lack of water and sewer service.
“This could be huge,” said County Commission Vice Chair Jake Dalton.
The county, which does not operate its own utility system, will distribute the funds to the Town of Rosman, allowing it to bolster its water and sewer systems with the ultimate goal of expanding service along Rosman Highway.
“This could bring a generational change for the whole county along that corridor. We could recruit new industry and it would be a prime location for workforce housing,” said Dalton, a Rosman business owner.
Rosman Mayor Brian Shelton tamped down the enthusiasm slightly, pointing out that even before receiving the funds, the town was poised to lay utility lines along the highway. Also, he said, because the town and county have yet to form specific plans for the use of the money, he’s not sure how much additional capacity or how many connections it will create.
But “it will help the capacity for sure,” he said. And “I’m excited any time we receive money from the county and the state.”
The line item was part of a total of $293 million in the budget devoted to improvements in Western North Carolina, according to a press release from three of the region’s Republicans lawmakers — State Sen. Check Edwards and state representatives Jake Johnson and Tim Moffitt.
Among other local projects funded in the budget: $750,000 to create and begin implementing a recreational master plan for Dupont State Recreational Forest, and $700,000 to pay for three stormwater management projects in the City of Brevard.
The allocation for Rosman utility upgrades, however, is by far the largest in Transylvania, and it will add to an already significant investment in the town’s sewer and water system.
The county has secured funding for an extension of water and sewer lines to serve Gaia Herbs, near Rosman Highway and Island Ford Road, and to provide access for some properties between that intersection and the town.
That work is scheduled to be put up for bid in January, Shelton said, and completed in the fall of 2022.
All but $800,000 of the $4 million total for that project came from out-of-county sources, including about $2 million from the American Rescue Plan, which paid for the water line, said County Manager Jaime Laughter.
Shelton said plans to use the new funds will be developed in meetings with town and county officials, possibly starting later this month.
Though the town’s wells can currently provide more than enough drinking water for current needs, it may explore the idea of withdrawing water from nearby surface waters such as the French Broad River.
“Some kind of water intake that would allow them to really increase their capacity,” Dalton called it.
The town also operates a water system that serves the Sapphire community west of Rosman, Shelton said, and will also consider those needs in its plans.
The town’s sewage treatment plant can treat as much as 250,000 gallons per day — also more than enough for current customers, Shelton said, and in the near future may only receive upgrades, such as a possible additional treatment process that would improve the quality of the discharged water.
And, he said, because many of the town’s water and sewer lines date to the 1970s, some of the money will likely be devoted to their replacement.
But Dalton added that the bolstering the system east of the town could be especially beneficial because of its development potential and location.
“It’s in the dead center of the county,” he said.
Laughter said that process to secure the funds dates to the spring of 2021, when Edwards’ and Johnson’s offices requested information about infrastructure projects that needed funding.
After she forwarded that offer to Rosman and the city of Brevard, she said, Rosman responded almost immediately and she passed its request on to lawmakers.
The city separately sought money for the stormwater improvement projects, City Manager Jim Fatland wrote in an email.
These would upgrade runoff control on or near Oakwood Drive, Railroad Avenue and the Times Arcade Plaza, all of which are prone to flooding during heavy rains, according to documentation sent to Johnson’s office.
Various engineering firms have designed the improvements, but money was not available to realize these plans until the passage of the budget. Fatland announced its inclusion of the funding in a Nov. 23 email to Council Members under the heading “GREAT NEWS!!!!”
DuPont’s request starts with planning. Though it has long been designated as a “Recreational” state forest, it has never had a recreational master plan to guide its operation, said Kirsten McDonald, the forest’s information and education supervisor.
The need for such a plan has increased along with the numbers of visitors, she wrote in an email. Forest officials have previously said a "huge surge" in visitation, especially since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, had contributed to problems such as jammed parking lots and wear on trails.
The funding will allow the “development of a master recreational plan that balances the needs of the forest and the 1.3 million visitors who come to view waterfalls, ride horses or bikes, hike or run, hunt or fish, and everything in between,” she wrote.
“An additional $550,000 is allocated for implementing the plan once it has been developed.”
Her email also included a quote from Forest Supervisor Jason Guidry, who said the money will help DuPont “protect our irreplaceable natural communities while providing high-quality and safe outdoor recreational experiences for the public.”