PWSD No. 1 Begins Improvement Projects

RICK PECK MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS Buddy Townsend, of R and R Construction of Bentonville, Ark., cleans out rock from a ditch for the installation of a new water line as part of a $5.5 million water system improvement project approved in April by voters of the Public Water Supply District No. 1.
RICK PECK MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS Buddy Townsend, of R and R Construction of Bentonville, Ark., cleans out rock from a ditch for the installation of a new water line as part of a $5.5 million water system improvement project approved in April by voters of the Public Water Supply District No. 1.

Public Water Supply District No. 1 has begun work on the first project funded through a $5.5 million bond voters approved in April.

According to Martin Beauchamp, field superintendent for the water district, the initial project is to install new water lines in order to tie the entire water system together.

He said 4,000 feet of eight-inch diameter line is being installed on the west side U.S. Highway 71. An additional 1,000 feet of 10-inch line will be installed in the area of Crowder College's Jane campus.

"That will bring water into Jane," Beauchamp said. "We have another line that is there, but it is in the creek and showing so if a root ball were to come down and take it out, we are going to have problems."

Beauchamp said the installation of the bigger line also will help fix periodic problems with water pressure for several customers.

"In the afternoons when the public comes home and takes a shower and everybody is going to clean up, it puts a strain on the system," Beauchamp said. "This will help that. Up around Juke Box or Little Missouri Road, if we have a little break or if something happens, we will have people call and say, 'We have low-water pressure or none at all,' depending on the break size. This will save our customers a lot of grief."

Voters approved the $5.5 million bond by 51-32 margin. Beauchamp said the water district has grown to 840 customers using about 400,000 gallons of water a day supplied by four wells. The system has more than 100 miles of water line spread from the state line north to Jane and to Simsberry and Ozark Beverage to the east.

The system is maintained by five people, including Beauchamp, who not only handles the administrative side of the water department, but also works in the field.

"We have some really good customers," Beauchamp said. "They will call and say 'when is the water coming back on or is the water off' and we will tell them yes it is and we are working on it right now. They will say 'OK, that is all I needed to know.' They will leave us alone, which is really nice, so we can fix the problem. We are always trying to make the system better."

Beauchamp said that after the installation of the new lines along U.S. 71 he would like to improve service in the Simsberry area.

"We are going to try to either put in an elevated tank or booster pumps," Beauchamp said. "Booster pumps is probably the way we are going to go because it is a whole lot cheaper. We are looking at a lot of options, maybe a different type of standpipe."

Beauchamp said that area suffers from low pressure, which does not meet the 20-pounds-per-square-inch as required by the Department of Natural Resources.

"We have worked with DNR on this for several years," Beauchamp said. "They are really good people, too, but one of these days somebody is going to say, 'Hey, you need to get this fixed.' So it is coming."

But Beauchamp said regardless of the time DNR is allowing the district, the problem needs to be fixed as soon as possible.

"This is something I think about all the time," Beauchamp said. "We have to get this better. We have a lot of customers out there with low pressure."

Another planned improvement is installation of radio-read water meters. With customers scattered all over the area, Beauchamp said it takes three guys at least two days every month to read water meters.

"We just got in 402 new meters and we are going to put those in our biggest route," Beauchamp said. "When we get these in, we are going to test all the meters we pull and we can retrofit with a new head and put it back in the system. We are going to try going total radio-read within the next year and a half."

Officials plan to apply to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Missouri DNR Revolving Loan Fund Program, as well as other funding sources that may be available.

Sports on 06/04/2015