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By Zach Compton

Contributing Writer

 

Mayor Neal Pucciarelli spoke about the success of recent events during the Town of Cumberland Gap’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen’s September meeting.

“Folk Fest was a huge event, we had a Farmer’s Market that was very well attended during the first Friday in September, and we had a car show,” Pucciarelli said.

The car show he spoke about was the Crossing the Gap Charity Car Show, which supported Crossing the Gap, a nonprofit organization based in Cumberland Gap that provides Thanksgiving meals to struggling families.

“They’ve been doing it for the past 2-3 years, and last year they fed over 200 families,” Pucciarelli said.

The board also discussed its recent department reports regarding state taxes where the town noted a small jump in tax revenue. Pucciarelli says that the town is “holding its own” regarding its tax revenue. The town is also still excited about their proposed Downtown Improvement and Tourism Enhancement grants that may help boost these even further.

The city is also still looking forward to the outcome of a grant that would help to relieve the flooding issues it sometimes faces. This grant, which could total up to $2 million with no match from the city, would cover the costs of work to implement measures against this flooding to improve the safety of the area for residents and business owners.

The city has also decided to use money they received from the American Rescue Plan Act (A.R.P.A) to accept a bid from an independent company to investigate the city’s sewer lines and identify areas that are in need of repair.

“With our ARPA money, which is money we got during Covid, we are going to work on identifying our sewer problems, and the second part of that proposal is to fix as many of those problems as we can with the remainder of that money. That amount is close to $600,000 which includes the town of Cumberland Gap and the community in Tiprell because we service them with our sewers,” Pucciarelli said.

The town is still waiting to hear back on the various grants it has applied for, but feels that they are on the right track to continue growing and developing the area into a place that people want to be.

“We want to grow the town, we want to try to create some opportunities for development and more business, and it’s something that we’re working on and hopefully one day we can get it where it needs to be,” the mayor added.