Letter From Commissioner Dennis reported that Eric Barsch, director

Letter From Commissioner

Dennis reported that Eric Barsch, director of the Health Department's division of water programs, is personally familiar with the situation in Sperrvville and considers the pollution of ground water and the Thornton River arising from the village's malfunctioning septic fields to be "one of the worst in the state." According to Dennis. Barsch has advised the Water and Sewer Authority to write the state health commissioner, requesting that Sperrvville be designated as an imminent health hazard for the purposes of the block grant application. "There's no question but that they will recertify Sperrvville as a health hazard. The facts are so obvious. so welldocumented that the Health Department won’t even have to resurvey," Dennis said.

He added that, according to Barsch. there is no danger of the Health Department closing businesses or taking other enforcement action in response to the request for health threat designation. "They will only recertify Sperrvville as a health hazard,” Dennis said.

Since the county and not the Water and Sewer Authority is the applicant for the block grant, the WSA members agreed to ask the board of supervisors to formally authorize John Capelle.. director of the Rappahannock - Rapidan Planning District Commission. to submit a request for funding in the second block grant cycle.

Dennis reported that workshops on preparing applications are scheduled for January. The Department of Housing and Community Development will release its new block grant prospectus in March and applications will be available in April. Deadline for submission is set for June I with awards to be announced between July 1 5 and early August. "I feel even more optimistic on our chances," Dennis said. "Of course, I thought we'd get it (the community development block grant) last time and we didn't but now we know exactly where we made our

(Continued on Page 2)