Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Only 15 of 700 Sign Up for Rural Water Project

Signups for the Prescott Rural Water Project are slow.

Following a meeting concerning the project Tuesday, Oct. 3, only 15 residents had paid the $180 to get city water. More than 700 are eligible to sign up for the service, which does not include city sewer services.

Gathering in the Nevada County Courthouse, about 75 people asked questions about what it would cost them, how much the system would cost overall and how their wells would be affected.

Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor, who moderated the meeting, told those present it was a joint project between the city and county, with the meeting being the beginning of phase II.

The first phase involved gathering information for an income census, testing wells randomly for pollutants and applying for the grants. Taylor said the second phase requires the city and county to supply a list of applicants to the funding agencies involved. These will be the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission (AIDC) and the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission. The AIDC will be providing a grant, while the ASWCC will loan the city and county monies to complete the project.

Taylor gave the residents in the proposed area for the project three weeks to sign up and pay the $180 deposit for a meter, even though the city and county have 60 days. Time, he said, is of the essence.

Mike Marlar, with Marlar Engineering of North Little Rock, and Clinton Wingfield, of Wingfield and Associates, were on hand to help answer questions about the planned system. Marlar was selected as the project engineer, while Wingfield will oversee the funds.

Marlar told the crowd he started work on the project in March 1995, and has been working to meet the AIDC's grant requirements since. He said a certain percentage of customers are needed in order to keep the cost to customers low, while the overall anticipated cost of the project is $3.7 million. Marlar told the audience the AIDC grant would cover about $2.4 million, with the ASWCC loaning Prescott and Nevada County the remaining $1.3 million.

Taylor said the minimum monthly fee for the service would be $19, with the rate based on a family using 5,000 gallons of water per month. Those present were informed the charge would be $1.50 per 1,000 gallons over 4,000.

Marlar said when the initial surveys were done, in order to qualify for the grant a certain percentage of those affected had to be in the low to moderate income range, and a certain percentage of the wells tested had to have evidence of coliform.

All these requirements were met, he said, and the AIDC is expected to allocate funds for the project in Jan. 1996. When the funds are allocated, Marlar said he would begin the preliminary engineering work.

The water lines will begin inside the city limits and "spiderweb" out to rural areas in all directions.

Marlar told those on hand the meters could be used for commercial or business purposes as well as households and for agricultural reasons.

He also reminded the throng the installation of fire hydrants along the lines will help lower their homeowners insurance rates. However, the exact location of the hydrants will not be determined until he begins working on the plans. The lines will utilize eight-inch pipe, six-inch pipe along with two- and three-inch pipe, and there will be no restrictions on the amount of water anyone can use.

Taylor said the more water used, though, the more the monthly bill.

In talking about how many customers were needed to get the grant and loan monies, Marlar said the AIDC generally wants 80 percent of those who could be affected to sign up. "It's important to get the signatures," he said. "When the AIDC allocates the funds, it's first come, first serve and the one who's ready first gets funded first."

The discussion turned to rights of ways and what the city and county planned to do to get them. Taylor said he hopes the residents want the water enough to give the city the easements needed, though they would still own the land. He said the easements simply mean the city would have the right to maintain the lines underground, and the only thing the owner couldn't do would be to build a building on top of the pipeline.

Marlar said the meters will be placed on the right of ways with lines run to houses. Those who qualify as low income will have the water line attached directly to their homes at no extra charge. Those who can, he said, will have to pay for the connection of the lines. Or, Marlar continued, they can install the lines themselves as long as a certified licensed plumber inspects the work and approves it.

Wingfield said the more people who sign up, the lower the costs will be to pay back the loan. This is because the grant could be for more than projected. "We need 70 to 80 percent to make this work," he said, "or the costs could be high. There could be a possible rate increase if we only get 70 percent to sign up."

Taylor told the crowd the $19 per month rate was based on 600 customers signing up of the more than 700 who are eligible. "If we come up with more (than 600 signing up) the rate could be reduced," he said. "This is why we need to get all we can on the system in the next three weeks."

Marlar said once the grants are approved and the funds allocated, it will take his firm about three months to design the project. After this, it will take between nine and 12 months to actually construct because the project involves more than 100 miles of water line.

Taylor said the meters could be transferred to another person or family, but the responsible party must go to city hall and change the name of who's using the water. This, he said, is done for billing purposes.

Further discussion on the rates resulted in Marlar telling the audience it normally takes 20 years to pay off the debt service for such a system, while Taylor said city residents have a minimum bill of $6.75 a month, with the water costing $1.02 per 1,000 gallons after 4,000 gallons have been used. He said it costs $11 to run 5,000 gallons of water a month in the city.

One area which appeared to irritate some of those on hand was when they were told they could not have city water and well water both going to their homes. This, they were told, is because any problem with the line could result in a contamination of the city water by the well water. However, they were also told they will not have to cap their wells or quit using them.

Marlar, Wingfield and Taylor all agreed the well water could be used in the homes, should the residents want to continue using well water, or the wells could be utilized to provide water to livestock or chickens -- or anything else.

When asked about the pressure available, Marlar said pressure checks done on the system show there will