The City of Rockingham continued efforts dating back 15 years to improve the quality of life in its outer-lying jurisdiction Tuesday night.

City council voted unanimously to move forward with a pair of projects to extend sewer service to East Rockingham’s Jefferson Park, a community blighted by failing septic tanks.

The first project is an $800,000 Community Development Block Grant, while the second is a project funded by a $667,000 grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation.

“We hope this project will go to bid soon,” Mayor Gene McLaurin said Wednesday. “(City Manager Monty) Crump said he felt like combining the projects may help us get some better pricing.”

McLaurin said the city benefits from its efforts to provide sewer service, but there are larger matters at stake for residents of East Rockingham.

“It helps us because we receive some funding to do this, though it’s not enough to pay for itself,” he said. “But more than that, it helps people in East Rockingham, really, to stay in their homes. Many of them are faced with having to leave their homes due to failing septic tanks, and we all know that this is a serious public health issue.”

McLaurin also pointed out Rockingham has made “millions of dollars” in investments in its wastewater treatment system, which is currently operating at about half of its capacity.

“This gives us the opportunity to add some residential, and in the case of the Ellerbe (wastewater regionalization) project possibly some industrial, capacity into our system,” McLaurin said.

Rockingham Community Development Director Sandy Ridley explained the latest round of grant funding isn’t the first the city has gone after to revamp areas of its extra-territorial jurisdiction in East Rockingham, including the Hannah Pickett and Jefferson Park communities, along with parts of the Aleo community.

“Our first project through the City of Rockingham was the 1995 Community Development Block Grant project that was in the Aleo community,” Ridley said.

This project installed 2,121 feet of sewer line into Aleo, while rehabilitating 28 homes. Additional funding for the project was awarded in 1997, extending 3,000 feet of sewer line to School Street and other parts of the Aleo community and rehabilitating 24 homes.

In 2001, Rockingham got funding to extend public sewer into portions of Jefferson Park through a CDBG project, then in 2007 received another CDBG project to install public sewer and water into the Hannah Pickett area and rehabilitated 15 homes.

Ridley explained the time that transpired between these projects is due to the competitive nature of the grant application processes.

“I think the city’s been very aggressive in trying to get funding in East Rockingham, but of course when the city applies for funding, they can only get it in their jurisdiction, the city limits or the ETJ,” she continued. “So, we can only go into East Rockingham where our ETJ area.”

Besides sewer, Ridley explained Rockingham has also gone after grants to improve housing conditions in East Rockingham over the years, though these funds are considerably harder to get.

She said these efforts have been aided by Richmond County Code Enforcement.

“Code enforcement is a very good tool for community revitalization in areas like East Rockingham,” Ridley said. “The county, as well as our building inspector, has demolished about 35 dilapidated dwellings in East Rockingham during this time, and another five or six have been done by the property owners.”

McLaurin said the city has made progress in revitalizing East Rockingham, “but no one is satisfied with where we’re at.”

“That’s something I’ve talked about in the past - government shouldn’t be the only solution in a community like East Rockingham,” he said. “It takes partnerships between residents of a community, government, some of the businesses that are still there and property owners. In the end, it really comes down to property owners taking the initiative to improve their property.”

In other business:

It was announced at the meeting that the North Carolina Rural Center will sponsor a bus tour of Richmond County on March 22.

On hand for the tour will be representatives of the North Carolina Department of Commerce and other dignitaries from Raleigh, who will get a chance to observe the needs of the impoverished county.

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.