Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Waterloo-Bodcaw Groundbreaking Held

People gathered practically in the middle of nowhere Friday morning for a very important occasion.

The occasion was the culmination of 10 years work as ground was officially broken for the Waterloo-Bodcaw Rural Water Project.

The project originally began with Waterloo trying to get some help to get a reliable supply of safe water to the residents of the area.

At first, the residents of Waterloo worked with people of Willisville, only to see this fall through. Next was Rosston, but the Rosston City Council, at the time, voted against joining in with the project.

This left Waterloo out in the cold in attempting to get loans and grants for a rural water system, until Bodcaw Mayor Larry Hicks stepped in.

Hicks and the Bodcaw council agreed to join in with Waterloo so both communities could have a reliable source of water.

But still there were problems. Even after loans and grants totaling about $4.5 million were obtained, finding a water source turned into a real scavenger hunt. A number of potential well locations were tried, but none proved to be satisfactory.

Then Hicks and company, with the aid of Billy Reynga, went to the Hope Water and Light Commission for help. They got an agreement from HW&L to provide water to the Hempstead- Nevada County line at Bodcaw, with the lines to be connected to Waterloo.

However, the initial construction of the project will begin at Waterloo.

Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown said he came on the project late, and praised the efforts of former judge John Barham.

Brown also lauded the assistance of State Rep. Sandra Rodgers for her efforts in getting this project off the drawing board and making it a reality. Rodgers, he said, has been involved with it from the beginning.

Brown thanked everyone who had worked to make the project a reality.

"This is a glad occasion for me," Hicks said. "I'm glad you all turned out here. I can't say enough about everyone who worked on this to make it happen today."

Hicks said Reynga "took care of the Hope end" by working with HW&L and then helping to get easements signed and people on the system.

"Three years ago we met at Harris Chapel Church," Hicks said, "and talked about getting this started. There's been a lot of cooperation, but I had no idea what was involved when we started."

According to Hicks, phase I of the project will take about a year to complete. During this year, he said, work will continue to find funding for phase II, which will connect the project to Bodcaw and HW&L's lines.

Approximately half of the money for this project is from grants, with the rest coming from loans through the Arkansas Soil and Water Commission.

Overall there will be about 100 miles of pipe laid in phase I. The project includes plans for two water tanks, one, at Bodcaw, to hold 125,000 gallons, and the other, near Waterloo, to hold about 75,000 gallons.

In addition, two pumping stations will be built for the system.

As Hicks said, this project is important because the water situation has been getting worse with each passing summer. For the past few years, each summer has seen less rain than the previous one, with severe drought conditions resulting.

This has led to wells running dry and people having to haul water to their homes.

Hicks said it is hoped phase II will simply flow into the end of phase I, but another $4.5 or $5 million is needed to complete the project.

More than 500 people have already signed up to be on the system, Hicks said, and as many as 200 more may sign up before phase I is done.

He said about 30 people will wait until they see the water lines running by their home before joining in, but when all is said and done, some 700 customers should be on the system.

At this time, he said, people can still sign up for $100. This includes the $50 for the connection fee and $50 for the meter deposit.

When the line is past people's homes and they decide to sign up, Hicks said, it will cost them about $500 to have water run to their house.

The loans, Hicks said, are on a 30-year note, with the basic water bill to be $18.31 a month. The bill will change depending on how much water a household uses during the month.

NRS Consulting Engineers of Texarkana is the project engineering firm, while John Parker, of Palestine, AR, is the primary contractor. Circle Welding will be done the standpipe and pump station, with Phoenix Fabricators of Indiana building the water tank.