By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

CLANTON — The Clanton City Council approved paying $356, 249 toward the second phase of the West End sewer rehabilitation project during a short meeting on Wednesday.

Mayor Billy Joe Driver said some of this funding was from a Community Development Block Grant the city received from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. The local funding for the project will be $241,399.

The project is sealing and lining existing sewer pipes.

“The sewer lines in the West End neighborhood were constructed in the early 1960s of vitrified clay pipe. This pipe is steadily deteriorating resulting in breakages, leaks, overflows of raw sewage and excessive inflow and infiltration during rainy periods. The project will directly benefit 259 persons, residents in 100 occupied housing units,” according to the grant request for release of funds.

Driver said the project will also help stop stormwater from getting into the pipes and causing issues.

The city was able to add three more roads worth of sewer lines to the project after it was discovered, once the project started, that not all of the pipes needed the renovations. The request to include these additional roads was submitted to ADECA in October. The project is still underway.

Also during the meeting, the Clanton City Council approved changing the time of its Jan. 9 meeting to 4:30 p.m.