The city of Adairville will soon begin the process of surveying its citizens in order to apply for a community development block grant (CDBG) through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

A short, eight-question survey will be conducted by members of the city council and the city workers to individuals who live in the city limits.

The purpose is to see if Adairville qualifies for the grant, which will be used for improvements to the town’s water and sewer lines.

“Right now, we’re still just getting together a list of what we want to fix and getting ready to do the survey,” Adairville city clerk Sharon Head said.

The survey asks questions about how many people live in a residence, how many are over 62 or disabled and asks about what range of income the household falls under.

A similar survey was conducted a couple years back by the Adairville Fire Department, but its results were insufficient to qualify for a CDBG.

Head said that 51 percent of those responding need to fall into the low to moderate income range in order for the city to qualify.

The improvements to the water and sewer lines are estimated to cost around $1.1 million.

“That can definitely change, because those are preliminary figures of estimated costs,” Head said.

Also, some of the items on the list the city is compiling may not make it to the final cut.

Some of the things that they hope to improve include replacing water valves and fire hydrants and replacing old sewer lines and adding a new sewage pump station.

“We really need the new water valves so that we can shut down water to smaller areas of the city and not have to shut the whole city down - that’s critical,” Head said.

If the city gets the CDBG, it will not fund the entire project.

Head said that the city is hopeful that the grant will pay for 30 to 50 percent of the entire project. The city will also apply for a loan through the Kentucky Rural Water Association - which will “forgive” 30 percent of the total.

“We’re hoping to get it down to where $300,000 to $500,00 is all we have to pay as a city,” Head said.