Grant money from the Appalachian Regional Commission will help fund two local community improvement projects, one in Braselton and one in Jefferson, according to an Oct. 16 news release.

The Shields Ethridge Heritage Farm in Jefferson will receive $24,690 in ARC grant funding for Wayside Exhibit project. More specifically, the money will pay for informational boards known as waysides to be placed in different places throughout the grounds and to develop a new Web site detailing the boards’ locations and encouraging people to visit the farm.

The farm, which has been in existence since 1792 and has remained in the same family for several generations, serves as an outdoor historical museum with the original buildings still intact, including a grist mill, a school house, a blacksmith shop and a wheat house, among others.

"We are going to use a lot of historical documents and photographs on the waysides, and they will be placed all along the grounds," said Susan Chaisson, president of the Shields Ethridge board of directors. "Visitors will be able to come ... and actually do a self-guided tour of Ethridge Farm."

The grant comes after the Athens Area Watson Brown Foundation gave the farm a $6,900 preservation grant last year, which has allowed the family to hire an archivist to go through all the historical documents still in the family’s possession, a process that fits well with the ARC funding.

"What has been so wonderful is these grants have piggybacked on each other and we have through the years taken small baby steps in what we’ve done," Chaisson said. "It’s been a slow process but it’s been a thorough process."

Braselton’s ARC funding, on the other hand, will go toward the town’s sewer system expansion project.

"This is the grant we applied for to upgrade the lift station in the industrial park on Ga. 124," Town Manager Jennifer Dees said in an e-mail.

The town first received news of the grant in July, when the project also received two Georgia Fund loans totaling $1.2 million designated from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority to finance upgrading and replacing the two wastewater pump stations.

The wastewater infrastructure that serves the 275-acre Braselton Business Park will go be able to pump 300 gallons per minute once the project is complete compared to its current 100 GPM capacity.

The Appalachian Regional Commission, a partnership of the governors of the 13 Appalachian states and a presidential appointee representing the federal government, gives grants to municipalities in the Appalachian region who have met the community improvement requirements set by the commission.

The projects must plan to meet four goals to be considered, including increasing job opportunities and per capita income in the Appalachian region, strengthening the region’s capacity to compete in the global economy, developing and improving infrastructure to make the region economically competitive and building the Appalachian Development Highway System to reduce Appalachia’s isolation, the news release notes.

Recipients include communities from Bartow, Gordon, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Lumpkin, Jackson, Pickens and Polk counties.

For more information on the grants, visit www.arc.gov.