Amherst County wins $500,000 SEID grant; landfill Cell 2 permitted under budget

Amherst County and the Amherst County Service Authority announced Dec. 16 that the county was awarded a $500,000 state economic infrastructure development (SEID) grant for the Gateway project and that its landfill Cell 2 has been permitted by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and delivered under budget.

Tim Castillo and staff said the SEID application improved after feedback from the prior cycle and that Amherst’s request was among 83 funded projects from about 356 applicants in the program’s cycle. Because Amherst County qualifies as a distressed locality for this program, the required local match is smaller; staff said previously-obligated ARPA funds that had been committed to the Gateway project are eligible as the match so the award requires no additional out-of-pocket county funds.

Separately, staff reported that the county borrowed $5.2 million for Cell 2 engineering and construction; the awarded construction contract was roughly $3.8 million and engineering and project credits to date leave the project about $1 million under the borrowed amount. Public works staff and the county’s project manager said permitting is complete and the project remains on schedule for the phased rollout discussed at earlier meetings.

Board members thanked staff for the interagency work and said they will return to the board with recommendations for handling the unspent borrowed funds and for the infrastructure master plan tied to the service authority’s financial master plan.