With all the funding in place, Sharpsburg officials say they are now looking to close out design plans for a pending sewer line project by the end of next month.

The town recently secured more than $2.7 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its sewer rehabilitation project. This secures more than $4.2 million — the project’s price tag — in funding for the town to make repairs to an aging sewer system that officials say continues to drain town finances.

The recent grant award is the culmination of two years of work by town officials, who have searched high and low for potential dollars that could mollify erratic utility rates and hefty treatment costs from Rocky Mount.

The trick has been to rack up all the free money available to the town, Mayor Sheila Williams said.

“We are committed to growing our community by maximizing all available resources,” Williams said in an e-mail response.

The town already is scheduled to put $20,000 toward the sewer project. Other money will include more than $1 million from the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center and USDA loan for more than $412,000 — financed for 40 years at an interest rate of 2.375 percent.

Although all the funding is in place, Project Manager Michelle Clements said the funds will not be distributed to the town for actual construction until bids have been collected and a project budget is complete.

Clements’ engineering firm, the East Group, was assigned last fall to provide design layout and manage construction and grants for the project. The project now is undergoing its design phase, which soon requires approval by the Local Government Commission.

Clements and town officials said they hope to put this portion to rest by the end of April.

Starting last summer, the Greenville engineering firm already has surveyed 15 percent of the town sewer lines, which stretch out 15 miles. Some of the reoccurring findings in the system were severe leaks and penetration.

“A lot of the system is old and has some age on it,” Clements said. “A good portion (of the sewer lines) still requires examining. The final designs will really give a concrete description of what needs work.”

Among the project’s to-do list, contractors will repair older sewer mains, target fix-ups at the town’s sewer pump stations and add communications equipment at each pump station. Previously, town officials said they planned to bid the project out to contractors by May and award contracts by June. But June is the absolute latest construction will have to begin.

Clements said the Board of Commissioners and other town officials will host an informational session for residents around the end of the month about the sewer project.

This will allow residents to ask questions and voice opinions about the project’s progression.