For more than three years, Elaine Hunt has appeared at virtually every Sampson County Board of Commissioners meeting to plead for county water service in her community on Old Warsaw Road. Finally, at Monday night’s meeting, she and her neighbors got the news they’ve been waiting for.
“We got a little good news with the grants,” Public Works Director Mark Turlington reported. “Late last week, I received an email from DEQ (Division of Environmental Quality) in reference to Old Warsaw Road. This is a letter of intent to fund. It’s a conditional grant.”
Though the project wasn’t approved in the spring of this year, as hoped, Turlington read from the letter, “The division has determined that your project is eligible to receive an emerging contaminants in small, disadvantaged communities.”
The grant will be for up to $3,343,750 from the Environmental Protection Agency. “It’s a conditional grant, which I don’t think there’s going to be no problem with that,” Turlington explained. “I’m doing some research, sent some emails out today to get clarification on it, but the funding conditions a letter of commitment to connect to the water system and that is the houses in that community, we’ve got to get a letter from them, and we’ll go out and talk with each household and get them signed up.”
The residents will have to commit to pay their water bill each month, he clarified.
“We’ve been working hard on that,” Turlington said. “Mrs. Hunt’s been working hard on that for over three years, and I hope we’re going to see the hard work pay off now.”
During public comment, Hunt thanked Turlington and the commissioners for getting the project going. She did ask if the residents who are receiving water from the state will continue to receive it, since the county water hookup will likely be a long process. Commission Chair Allen McLamb said he would follow up with Hunt as soon as possible, and that the residents will still receive water.
Ivanhoe Project Nearly Completed
Turlington also gave updates on other ongoing water projects, reporting that the original phase of the Ivanhoe project is just about completed. “I went by there today and there’s probably only a couple of miles left to finish that,” he told commissioners. “Later on tonight, an engineer’s going to come before you to ask for approval of a change order to finish the last three miles.”
Indeed, later in the meeting, Emma Ialeggio with Dewberry Engineers formally requested the change order, which she said will expand the project to include water main extensions and residential service connections along Harrells Highway 1 toward Garland, East 2nd Street in Garland, and an additional parallel line on Harrells Highway 2.
The change order increases the price of the project from $10,344,294.50 to $12,003,849.22.
The commissioners unanimously approved the change order.
Other Project Updates
The GFL project, which consists of Lee Avenue, White Woods Road, Lakewood School, Bubba Gump Road, Marian Amos Road, part of Flint Road, part of NC 242 and Laurel Lake Road, has been bidded out, with Turlington scheduled to open the bids on Tuesday.
Bidding on the Clement Phase 2 project should start soon, he said, and the southern wells project is getting started as well. Workers were scheuled to clear the King Road site on Tuesday, and once that’s done, will move on to Taylors Bridge Highway.
Grant funding for the Old Mintz Highway project will be announced after the first of the year, Turlington reported.
Roseboro, Autryville water problems
Turlington also addressed ongoing improvements in the Roseboro area. “We added a new 125,000 gallon tank and a booster pump station,” he explained. “Why we did this was because between Roseboro and Autryville, we were having a pressure issue with the residents there.”
Once this new infrastructure was put into service, Turlington added, it caused an adverse reaction in Autryville. “Due to the high pressure, a tank in Autryville overflowed,” he explained. “The solution to this is to add an electronic valve to the tank in Autryville, as well as updating our existing SCADA to communicate with the Autryville tank. The estimated cost of this solution will be between $50,000 and $75,000. Due to their aging infrastructure and limited resources, we propose Sampson County cover 75 percent of the cost and the town of Autryville cover the other 25 percent of the cost. This is the best option for all parties in order to move forward.”
The commissioners approved the request, and an associated resolution to get the project going forward.