As many of you now know the Town of Lyerly has been awarded two large grants in the last 30 days. The first was the CDBG for $500,000 and the second was the ARC for $233,230. The town is very fortunate to have received these grants as they will allow the town to take on some much needed infrastructure repairs and upgrades that otherwise would not have been possible. Work on these grants began in 2010 and has continued up until a few weeks before the award. Let me stress that everybody at town hall, from mayor to councilmembers to water dept. employees worked on these grants in some form or fashion whether it was providing insight, attending meetings related to the grants or assisting in gathering information. The grant awards are the result of a group effort by the Town of Lyerly, it's citizens, and several other agencies who worked closely with us on them. We would like to give special thanks to a few people who were instrumental in Lyerly receiving the grant money. First we would like to thank Julie Meadows, Economic Development Specialist, and Carolyn Coburn, Economic Development Associate with the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission who actually prepared and submitted both grants for us. Grant processes are very competitive and to get two grants of this size in the same year is quite an achievement. Next we would like to thank LADD Enviromental Consultants who provided preliminary engineering on the grant projects. Last but not least we would like to thank our Clerk Joy Hampton for her hard work preparing and tracking down information requested by the assisting agencies and getting it back to them so promptly. While we have procurred the awards we are not out of the woods yet, the grant administration process (actually getting the funds as work progresses) is very tedious and we will be enlisting the services of a grant administrator to handle this for the town. Hopefully you will see construction, progress, and improvements beginning in Lyerly very soon.