South Pittsburg City Administrator Sammy Burrows talks to the media in this file photo.
SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. - South Pittsburg City Administrator Sammy Burrows recently took a moment to address what he perceives as negativity directed toward the town's leaders.
"For several months now, there's been a lot of negative stuff about the city administration and how bad we are and all this," Burrows told city commissioners. "I guess it's because not a lot of things are being seen that we're working on."
Social media has increased the spread of those negative feelings about the town's administration, he said, but it's "a small percentage of people that get on [Facebook] and basically show their ignorance most of the time."
Burrows said much of the work done to manage the town is "behind the scenes," and he wanted to announce formally some of the good things that would be happening soon.
South Pittsburg was awarded a U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service grant for $454,687 and a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant for $300,000, he said.
That money will be used to make some much-needed repairs remaining from the July 2013 flash flood that devastated much of the downtown and Richard City areas, Burrows said.
He said the work would include installing retaining walls, cleaning out drainage ditches and shoring up their banks.
Even though both of those grants require matching funds from the city totaling $188,671, the money from one can be used to cover that requirement for the other and vice versa, he said.
"It's going to be a wash for the city," Burrows said. "We're going to have $754,000 to put into these projects that's not going to cost the city a penny."
The Tennessee Department of Transportation awarded the town a $697,000 grant that does require a $139,000 matching funds commitment from South Pittsburg.
That money will be used to repair some of the city's historic concrete streets.
Commissioner Jimmy Wigfall said the news of all the grant money flowing into the town was "great."
"There are good things going on in South Pittsburg," Burrows said. "It's not all negative."
Additionally, he said the city would be getting $49,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover about 85 percent of the costs for debris cleanup from a strong storm that came through town on June 10.
Mayor Jane Dawkins said she wanted to just keep hearing good news like that.
"There's going to be a lot of stuff going on in South Pittsburg that people are going to be able to see that this administration is doing," Burrows said. "They're not sitting on a stool and doing nothing. We are not that bad of an administration. We've got some good people that are working hard."
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.