Monday, November 18, 2013
Very Important County Meeting Regarding Water Lines Thursday
After soliciting the public's help in finding areas in Lawrence County that need water lines several weeks ago, officials report the response has been great.
"On behalf of Lawrence County Government, I want to thank the citizens for their response in helping us document areas within the county that need water," said Commissioner Chris Jackson.
"While we won't be able to help all these areas at once, we have documented all of the areas in need and we will continue be proactive in applying for grants and doing what is economically feasible with county funds."
Jackson points out that running water lines is a long drawn out process which can be frustrating at times.
"We ask everyone in need to please be patient with us. If your area doesn't get chosen first, it doesn't mean we have forgotten about you or are showing favoritism elsewhere. I have found that extenuating circumstances often affect the process more than anything else."
This is the case for many grants the county applies for to help run water lines. "We can't just pick and choose which areas to include in an application," Jackson explains.
"We have to make the application as competitive as possible because the State awards grants based on a points system that has several qualifiers. They tend to favor areas that have the most number of homes requesting water hookup (the more homes in a short distance, the better), areas that are majorly low income and areas that have poor water quality.
So going by their guidelines, areas that meet this criteria are more likely to be included in a grant application over areas that do not. We must also make sure local utility districts are willing to work with us to extend water lines.
If the district is at full capacity or refuses to take the lines over once installed for whatever reason, it ties our hands with areas in those districts. So as you can see, there are many factors that go into running extensions."
Lawrence County Government would like all citizens who need water to know that there is very important meeting dealing specifically with water line extensions on November 21st at 5 PM in the Conference Room in the County Executive Office Building.
They ask that anyone who is in need of water come to the meeting to let the Utilities Committee know of their need and the details of the area.
"As we go through this process, we can't and won't make any promises," Jackson said. "But we will continue pledge to you that Lawrence County Government will not stop fighting until everyone that needs water, has it.
This effort won't be complete in a week, a month, a year or even five years. But let us begin."
