Newton Grove is experiencing its fair share of water main breaks lately, something town officials say happens in many municipalities more than people may think.
Because of that, town officials had to hold an emergency meeting last week to approve budget amendments dealing with a string of repairs to multiple water mains throughout Newton Grove.
Town Clerk Amanda Baggett explained that water main breaks occur more often than many people realize.
“There is no rhyme or reason,” Baggett explained during a recent interview. “We mark them (the lines), or we don’t get there in time, and the contractors choose to dig anyway. There’s nothing that’s occurring that is (causing it). It happens all the time all over the place. Nothing is causing it other than outdated maps, and lines getting moved. A lot of cable and things have been cut within the town. We have put in claims to get reimbursed from the contractors that have caused the issues.”
The town has experienced a series of water main leaks over the past few weeks after contractors digging in the area unexpectedly struck underground lines. One of the first incidents occurred around June 8, causing residents between Johnston Highway and West Barefoot Road to experience changes in water pressure. About a week later, a contractor hit a water main near Herring Hardware at the town’s circle, causing another leak. The most recent incident occurred on June 27, when a water main broke on Church Street.
Because of the recent breaks — two water main breaks and one sewer line break — the town had to transfer additional revenue into the repair line items within the budget to ensure there was enough funding to cover the necessary repairs. Budget amendments totaling $55,500 were approved, with $26,000, $9,500 and $20,000 moved into the appropriate line items.
“There were three different ones (amendments) done,” Baggett pointed out. “Some came from an increase in revenue, some came from line items that we didn’t use all that was budgeted for. So we moved that over. I spoke to the Local Government Commission (LGC) before we did it. This happens a lot with towns because of a lot of last-minute repairs. It hasn’t happened to us since I’ve been here that we’ve had to do an emergency meeting, but we’ve had three major repairs within 12 days that were past the June meeting (to approve the budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year). So I went ahead and put a call in, and she (Melonie Bryan) told me, ‘Don’t worry about it, call an emergency meeting, do budget amendments, get them approved and it’ll be fine.’”
With the budget amendments approved, the Newton Grove Board of Commissioners will hold its next regular meeting on Monday, July 13.