SWEETWATER-The City of Sweetwater has been awarded a $500,000 Enhancement Grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation to go toward the construction of a train station replica, Mayor Doyle Lowe announced during the Sweetwater Merchants and Property Owners Association meeting Thursday morning.

"It's an exciting time to be living in Sweetwater," the mayor told a large crowd at the meeting.

The train station replica will be built in Hunt Commons. Hunt Commons is city-owned property on the east side of the railroad tracks just across from the old train car. The square was named after the late Joey Hunt, a National Guard soldier and Sweetwater native killed while serving in Iraq in 2005.

The proposed 1,400-square-foot facility would serve as a visitors center, museum and have public restrooms, a necessity long needed in the downtown shopping district.  

See full story in the Sunday, Sept. 21, edition of The Advocate & Democrat.