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By Robert Sorrell

Star Correspondent

Public drinking water in the Laurels community is one step closer following a vote Monday evening at the Carter County Commission.

Budget Committee Chairman Robert “Bob” Acuff made a motion to pass a resolution to authorize the payment of matching funds by the county to complete the Laurels Road waterline extension project. Commissioner Aaron Frazier seconded the motion and it passed.

The commission approved the county to provide matching funds of $156,156. The matching funds would include $75,000 from American Rescue Plan money from the federal government. The remaining money would come from Carter County’s unassigned fund balance. The total grant is about $780,780.

The project has been in the works for years and would provide about a dozen homes with public drinking water from the city of Elizabethton. The county is working with the city on the project.

Commissioners also approved a motion to use the remaining funds from the ThreeStar Grant that had been used to do a hotel and motel study for a hotel developer search. The funds amount to about $35,000 and Acuff said the county would work with the same firm, HVS, for the search.

The county has been working to identify a need and location for a new hotel or motel in Carter County. The motion passed unanimously on Monday.

Commissioners previously learned that the feasibility study found three potential sites for a hotel, including Overmountain Drive and Militia Drive and two along the U.S. Highway 19E corridor.

The ThreeStar program is a strategic community development program developed to assist communities across Tennessee in preparing for a better future, for today and tomorrow.

During commissioner comments, Commissioner Frazier made a motion to ask County Attorney Josh Hardin to review the dark sky ordinance that the city of Nashville has enacted. He made the motion after residents in the Siam area raised concerns about new bright LED street lights that they said the Elizabethton Electric Department installed near their home. The lights hurt the “rural lifestyle” of Carter County, the residents said.

The commission passed Frazier’s motion.