More Than 40 Lanagan Residents Still Without Water

Many Lanagan residents have been without water since May 5 — there is currently no projected date as to when water will be restored.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DALE MITCHELL. Dale Mitchell bathing her grandchildren Jonah and Pearl in buckets. Mitchell has been driving buckets to the pumper tanker as they're too heavy to constantly refill.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY DALE MITCHELL. Dale Mitchell bathing her grandchildren Jonah and Pearl in buckets. Mitchell has been driving buckets to the pumper tanker as they're too heavy to constantly refill.

PINEVILLE -- More than 40 Lanagan residents are without water after an exposed pipe was struck by a foreign object during a May flood. There is currently no date predicted for needed repairs due to Lanagan's lack of city funding. The city is waiting for funding from the state of Missouri before water will be restored.

Dale Mitchell, a Lanagan resident lacking water, said residents on the South side of Indian Creek are without water. Mitchell said she learned her water was out by receiving an Amber Alert notifying Lanagan residents following the pipe break.

"I told them last summer, that from all the flooding we'd had, the pipe was exposed about twelve feet," Mitchell said, noting the pipe has been exposed for nearly a year. "He [Lanagan Mayor, Stan Haywood] said, 'We don't have the equipment to fix that kind of thing.'"

Mitchell said that, since she has been out of water, her family -- including her grandchildren and nieces and nephew that are frequently at her home -- have been bathing out of buckets, using bottled water provided by McDonald County Emergency Management to cook, and using water out of a pumper tanker provided by McDonald County Emergency Management to flush the toilets.

"On my property, I've got two grandkids, nieces and a nephew -- these are babies under the age of three," Mitchell said. "Their mom usually boils the water and puts them in the shower and uses that water that she's warmed up. In the warmer weather, we've been taking a bucket down there, so we didn't have to haul the water and just use it out of the water truck.

Mitchell said the water from the water truck isn't clear, but rather orange from rust coating the inside of the truck, something McDonald County Emergency Management director Gregg Sweeten confirmed. The pumper tanker truck is used to provide water to flush toilets, but not to drink.

Mitchell said that, since her water has not worked, she and multiple of her family members have felt ill, including vomiting and runny noses.

Mitchell said another difficulty she's faced is doing laundry, something she's now having to pay to do at the laundromat. Mitchell noted she pays between $4.50 and $7.50 a load, adding that she'd rather do her laundry in her own washing machine.

"I've tried to be patient," Mitchell said. "I've been patient. But I don't feel like it's going as quickly as it could've been."

Sarah Chevaili, a Lanagan resident without water, has two children living at home, 15 and 8 years old. Chevaili said her children have struggled since being out of water as they're both involved in sports and cannot take a shower at home.

"I have to shower them after every practice, that's been kind of fun," Chevaili said, laughing sarcastically. "We don't have a lot of family that lives super close so we're having to drive to Gentry, to Jay, to Neosho, to Bella Vista, to Bentonville just to get showers."

Chevaili said her family members' lives have had to change drastically since they've been without water, noting various difficulties they've faced.

"It's awful. You don't realize how much water you actually need to just live your day-to-day life," Chevaili said. "We're having to fill up water jugs just to flush the toilets, you have to use a water bottle just to brush your teeth, you have to use bottled water to cook your food."

Chevaili said she feels that she's not being heard by Lanagan leadership, adding that she's not continued to receive updates from the mayor and struggles to speak with anyone at City Hall.

"I don't think any of us really know anything," Chevaili said. "It's all just what we all gather from each other."

Teresa Sanderson, a Lanagan resident without water, said it's difficult to communicate with Mayor Haywood or City Hall about the water outage.

"They're not taking us seriously, they get us off the phone as quickly as possible," Sanderson said. "Basically, all we get told is, 'We're working on it. That's all we can do; we're working on it.'"

Sanderson said, since her water ceased working on May 5, she's received two emails and a few phone calls. Sanderson said she's been told there is little communication due to a lack of updates from the city of Lanagan.

Sanderson noted obtaining bottled water, which is provided by McDonald County Emergency Management, is difficult as it's not delivered and must be picked up from Lanagan City Hall. Lanagan residents can only pick up water when City Hall is open, which is Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. To pick up bottled water, residents must bring proof of address, proving they're without water.

"We've been a whole month without water, and nobody seems to be real concerned," Sanderson said. "'We're working it,' is all we ever hear. 'We're working on it,' after a month -- working on it isn't cutting it."

Stan Haywood, nine-year mayor of Lanagan, said the exposed pipe, which eventually caused the water outage, could not be repaired by the city although he was aware of the issue.

"There was a portion of the pipe that was sticking out for the ground before the flood," Haywood said. "But it was in such a place that you just couldn't get to it. The city just didn't have the money, and it's in a slew area, and you know it's just a terrible location to get to."

Haywood said the city is waiting on the state of Missouri to release funds to pay for the broken pipe and restore citizens' water.

Haywood said that, immediately after the break, he notified Red Cross and the director of McDonald County Emergency Management, Gregg Sweeten.

"With the state, of course, we've applied for state funds," Haywood said. "At that's what we're waiting on. The release of state funds."

Haywood said he does not know when water will be restored and cannot predict a date. Haywood said the pipe will have to be re-bored under the riverbed and come up the other side, which will cost an estimated quarter of a million dollars.

"None of this is written in stone. But I've been told they're fast-tracking this," Haywood said. "It is what it is."

Haywood said that, as he has updated information, he will call residents without water but does not plan on calling them until he knows something new.

"A lot of people just don't understand how the financing aspect of states works," Haywood said. "There's no place in the state where you can just run up there and call them up and say, 'Hey, I need this amount of money,' and they'll have it to you in the next day."

Haywood said he has no date in mind as a goal to have the water repaired as he noted the matter is completely out of his hands.

"If I had a goal [a date to have water repaired], it would have been done last week," Haywood said, laughing. "There's no way to sugar-coat it and I'm not going to build anybody's hopes up and I'm certainly not going to go out on a limb and be put in a position where it's portrayed that I'm a liar."

Dirk Deaton, Missouri State Representative, said the reason the pipe repair is taking an extended amount of time is that the city of Lanagan did not have sufficient funds to repair the issue.

"There are CDBG grants -- it's a community development block grant -- which those funds come from the federal government and the state administers them," Deaton said. Deaton said Haywood was working on the lengthy application after meeting with him, noting the application is known for being extensive.

"My understanding is that as of Friday [June 3] that the city was still working on that application to be made to the Department of Economic Development for the CDBG funds that they would use, hopefully for this project," Deaton said.

Deaton noted he was doing the things in his power at the state level to fast-track the process in any way that he could. Deaton said Lanagan is in a unique situation as the lack of water would be considered an emergency situation, but the city is applying for CDBG grants, which can also be used for community revitalization. Deaton said, hopefully, the city is working as quickly as possible, acknowledging Haywood's effort on the application.

Gregg Sweeten, director of McDonald County Emergency Management, said he has provided Lanagan with water through the water truck and bottled water. Sweeten has helped disburse water to the community, alongside Ray Mitchell Towing, who donated a large amount of bottled water to those impacted by the pipe break.

  photo  PHOTO PROVIDED BY DALE MITCHELL. Pumper tanker truck provided by McDonald County Emergency Management. Water from the truck cannot be used to drink as it's not clean enough for consumption.
 
 
  photo  PHOTO PROVIDED BY DALE MITCHELL. The pipe that broke during the flood, causing the water outage. Residents have been without water for over a month and do not know when water will be restored.