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Tryon on NLC’s radar for federal government program

LAKE LANIER—Tryon’s mayor pro-tem Chrelle Booker has put the town on the National League of Cities’ radar to get help to pay for repairs to the Lake Lanier Dam. 

Booker is a member of the NLC, which just launched its new Ready to Rebuild report, which includes the Town of Tryon for its dam and water needs. 

The snapshots of each city’s infrastructure challenges are based on interviews with local officials from Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington, according to the NLC. 

Municipal leaders, including Booker, made clear that their infrastructure needs have grown beyond what local governments are able to tackle alone and that they need a strong partner in the federal government. 

The report found that students in Independence, Minnesota were unable to participate in distance learning because the town lacks reliable internet service; Tryon, North Carolina is facing challenges in paying for the capital needs to keep their dam and water service flowing; a predominantly black neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee is divided by the construction of the I-40 highway in the 1960s and is finally getting a chance to be reconnected; a major freight rail-to-truck exchange inside a neighborhood in Tukwila, Washington has freight trucks passing over the trembling, structurally deficient 42nd Avenue bridge daily and over 40,000 homes in Buffalo, New York use 150 miles of legacy lead water pipes that the city is working to replace but cannot get to soon enough. 

“Local governments are ready to rebuild and to make their cities better places to live,” said NLC CEO and Executive Director Clarence E. Anthony. “They can streamline the delivery of this work because they are on the ground and have every incentive to follow through quickly. Cities own most of the nation’s roads and water, and they handle the zoning and rights of way for broadband service. If Congress wants to get transportation, water and broadband projects done, there are 19,000 local governments across our great country ready to get to work.”

According to a recent NLC survey, 91% of municipal leaders say insufficient funding is their top concern when it comes to moving forward with critical infrastructure investments to support their communities. With sufficient investment, local leaders can put their plans into action to restore and enhance the condition of their infrastructure systems, supporting local jobs and opening up new opportunities for economic growth as our nation continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Congress debates President Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plan (AJP), which includes historic investments in our nation’s infrastructure systems, local leaders in all 19,000 cities, towns and villages are working to address their own infrastructure challenges with little or no support from Washington. NLC and its members continue to seek a strong partnership with the federal government to ensure that all American communities can recover and rebuild in a sustainable manner that will support the health, safety and economic well-being of their residents.

Booker said as Congress continues to work out the particulars of the American Jobs Plan, Tryon becomes a part of present-day American history with the Biden-Harris Administration concerning our infrastructure issues.

“The Town of Tryon spearheads the National League of Cities’ “Ready To Rebuild: Local Infrastructure Projects Ready To Move” report,” Booker said. “The report features in-depth stories that underscore the urgent infrastructure needs of cities, towns and villages across the U.S. to be presented to Congress and the new

Administration.”