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The Summerville News, Thursday, March 2, 2000
Trion Council Thinks About
Switching Water Suppliers
Report: Cost Could Take Almost 39 Years To Recover
The Town of Trion is consid
ering the expenditure of about
$200,000 to switch the city
schools’ water supplier from the
Chattooga Water District 1 to
water supplied to the town by
Mount Vernon Mills Inc.
Mayor Hayes told Council
members that Ke would like to
see the school use “Trion water.”
He said, “We are paying for
the water at the school system
through the ‘Chattooga County’
water works.’ I've always had the
feeling that it's a Trion city school
and it ought to be ‘Trion City
water.”
TANK COST
Providing “Trion water” to
the school would cost between
$150,000 and $200,000 to build
a 200,000-gallon water tank at
the school, Mayor Hayes esti
mated at the Thursday, Feb. 24
meeting.
Some $6,000 more would
have to be spent to buy piping to
connect the water tank to Trion'’s
water lines, he indicated.
“So we are looking right at
$150,000 to $200,000 to run
water to the school system,”
Mayor Hayes said. “Folks we are
going to have to bite the bullet
and do that.”
“If we continue to pay the
water rights for the scßool to
have water, that is an every
month expense,” Councilman
Roy Bowers said. “Sooner or
later, if it takes six months, that
is six months of bills that we
could pay towards that
$150,000, or whatever it is. We
need to look at it pretty seriously.
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I think it is very feasible to do
this.”
The Summerville News cal
culated the potential cost of
switching from “county water” to
“Trion water.”
The Chattooga Water Dis
trict 1 Authority office said the
school system’s monthly water
bill runs about $430 monthly.
That is $5,160 a year.
38.75 YEARS
At that rate, it would take
Trion 38.75 years to recover
money spent on the water stor
age tank alone.
That figure does not include
the additional expense of run
ning water lines, 38.75 years of
maintenance and the cost of wa
ter charged to the town by Mount
Vernon Mills Inc., which owns
the water sugply.
Although town officials said
the school system would be con
necting to “Trion city water,” the
town in reality would continue
buying its water from Mount
Vernon Mills instead of from the
Water District 1 system.
Trion doesn’t own a water
filtration plant.
Except for the Trion City
Schools, the town buys all its
water from the mill. The town
budgeted $51,500 in its 1999-
2000 fiscal year budget to obtain
water from Mount Vernon for all
its customers.
FIELDS
Town officials said they be
lieved the addition of several
large athletic fields at the school
would increase the schools’ wa
‘ ter bill. The summertime water
ing of these fields would cause an
“increase in water consumption,
they said.
“Like I say; when they put
those fields up there, they are
going to use buckets and buck
ets of water,” Mayor Hayes said.
“It's either pay me now or pay me
later. That is one item we are go
ing to have to look at real
closely,” Mayor Hayes said.
EXPENSES?
In other action Thursday
night, Feb. 24, Councilman
Dwight Arden questioned the
Mayor and Council about several
purchases made by the town dur
ing January.
Among those items was
$163 worth of Polaroid brand
film.
“I've got a couple of (ques
tions), that I couldn't get answers
on ... There is an exrenditure
there for Polaroid film that I
thought was absorbent,” Arden
said.
“The $163?” Hayes asked.
“That’s a lot of Polaroid
film,” Arden added.
FILM, TAPE
“That is the video. That,
uhhh. .. thatis the video, uhhh .
.. That’s the camera that, uhhhh
... That’s the car . . . That’s the
video for the police cars,” Ma{or
Hayes responded. “They also
have a couple of cameras that
they use to make pictures . . .
That all didn’t all go to the police
department. We use some of that
here in the waterworks and some
in the maintenance department
and so forth. That'’s tfri)e video
tapes and film. We have pictures
we use to take of broken water
lines and gas lines or when they
steal the gas so that we have it
for a record,” Hayes said.
“Well, on page three, we've
got another expenditure for film,
a lantern and%atteries that are
pretty high,” Arden said.
BATTERIES
“The lantern and batteries
came about because of the cold
weather we had here.., Hayes
said. “Those batteries were some
batteries we used back durin
when we had that snow, sleet ang
ice. That is what that was for. I'm
sure some of that film is where
they needed some and got it.”
“What kind of batteries are
we talkinghabout?" Arden asked.
“Flashlight batteries . . ~”
Hayes responded.
“For 5255?" Arden asked.
LANTERNS
“ It wasn’t just batteries,”
Mayor Hayes said. “You got lan
terns and film all in there. The
batteries weren't just $255 . . .
Max went to Sam’s (Club in
Rome) and bought a case of bat
teries and split it up between the
police department, the gas de
partment, the water department
and the maintenance depart
ment, because you couldn’t buy
a battery in the Town of Trion
when we had the ice storm.”
“We've got an expenditure
for chainsaws. What kind of
chainsaws and how many
chainsaws do we have?” Arden
asked.
“We bought that because of
the ice and snow,” Mayor Hayes
replied.
“How many did we buy?”
Arden asked.
“I think we bought four,”
Hayes responded.
“For $2,500?” Arden asked.
CHAINSAWS
“One larfie one, a 36-inch. .
. They were chainsaws that came
from Stansell’s (Furniture,
Trion),” Mayor Hayes replied.
“That is part of the money that
is supposed to be coming back
from tEat FEMA (Federal Emer
gency Mana%ement Agency)
thing. Now, Dwight, we have
gone out here and we bm:f,ht
some at hardware stores and so
forth and you burn them up,”
Hayes said.
“You are going to burn one
up for sure if you wear your blade
out,” Arden said. “You are sup
posed to change that thing.”
SHARPENED
“We do and sharpen it,” the
mayor said. “The firisoners use
these and we use them.”
“For $2,500? Now how
many chainsaws?” Arden asked.
“Four,” Hayes replied.
The next scheduled Council
meeting is set for 6 p.m. on
Thursday, March 23.
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Construction on the City of Menlo’s new wellsite building by
James W. Busbin Contractor Inc. continues to lag weeks
behind schedule, city officials have said. The company could
SHA Still Hoping
The Summerville Housing
Authorit[\; (SHA) has been un
able to obtain emergency funds
from a federal agency to com
plete an apartment renovation
pr(y'ect. according to Regina
Anderson, SHA director.
However, she said she
hopes to find out the amount of
appropriations the authority will
receive this year by May or June.
SHORTFALL
The authority’s shortfall on
renovation fund)s started late
this (s)ast year. It had been allo
cated $1,850,000 grant from the
federal department of Housin
and Urban Development (HUD%
for rehabilitating 57 apartments
in 32 SHA buildings.
However, the E)w bid on the
project was $2,044,000, or
$194,000 more than the avail
able HUD money, Ms. Anderson
explained in December.
Since the SHA had 10 apart
ments due for renovation in the
first phase of the rebuilding
project, she said, those will have
to be refurbished first, before the
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Well Construction Goes Slowly
57 apartments in the second
phase of the program.
After refiguring the total,
Ms. Anderson said about
$412,000 of the $2,044,000
grant will have to be used to re
work the 10 apartments left over
from the first phase. The original
estimate was $408,500.
That would leave
$1,632,000 to rebuild the addi
tional 57 units.
Ms. Anderson said in De
cember that SHA hoPed to obtain
emergency funding from HUD to
finish the 10 apartments in the
first phase plus all 57 apartments
projected for the second phase of
the modernization pro%ram.
However, it wasn’t possible to
obtain those monies, she said she
learned.
Her original estimate was
that seven units would have to be
deducted from the second phase,
meaning that 50 units would be
renovated instead of 57. That
would be in addition to the 10
apartments left over from the
first }])‘hase of funding.
he SHA oversees 225
CETRE W R e SRR
face stiff fines for delays, they said earlier, based on the con
tract. (Staff Photo By D. J. Laan).
To Finish Project
apartments in five areas of Sum
merville, plus the 60 apartments
in the McGinnis Memorial High
Rise Building on Marvin Street,
Ms. Anderson said.
If the Authority is able to
obtain sufficient funds this year,
it could possibly complete more
renovations than first antici
pated, she indicated.
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Besides Hages Construc
tion, other bidders on the
projects were CDB Construction
Co., Kingston, $2,094,000;
Jarrett Construction Co., Mont
gomery, Ala., $2,124,000; Lubin
Enterprises Inc., Memphis,
Tenn., $2,390,000; and Metro D
Construction Co., Talladega,
Ala., $2,400,000.