First water from new Scott County district flows to Kelly schools

BENTON, Mo. -- After months of preparations, the Scott County Public Water Supply District No. 4 now has water running to its first customer.

"On Wednesday, when the kids were out of school (at Thomas W. Kelly), we started flushing out the system," said Tim McIntyre, system manager. "We added pressure to the lines to clean them out on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday."

McIntyre said he visited the school twice Monday morning to continue to monitor the flow.

"And everything still looks really good," he said. "I've done all the tests I can do and it looks great, so we're hoping we won't have any problems."

Phil Lyon, president of the water district board of directors, called the hookup: "a good first step."

So far, everything appears to be working well at the school district, said superintendent Don Moore. He said the hookup has been long-awaited.

"Our well failed out -- we weren't getting near enough water," he said. "We were actually having to depend on two 2,500-gallon tanks -- they would fill up at night and we would depend on them to last the day."

Moore said he and other school officials were "crossing our fingers" the wells would last until the hookup. He now continues to monitor the water flow in the buildings for pressure issues, but said as of now, everything appears to be flowing well.

Lyon and McIntyre agreed that work is very smooth since a new contractor, Youngs Construction of Hornersville, took over in September. The original contractor, Municipal Construction Inc., of Goodrich, Mich., was terminated earlier this year due to performance issues, said McIntyre.

"The contractor we have now is doing an excellent job," said Lyon. "It's really a pleasure to work with them."

McIntyre said he's grateful for the patience of those waiting to get hooked up, as well as the board of directors.

"They have been great -- we've had a lot of setbacks and they kept pushing forward," he said. "There are times a lot of us just want to throw up our hands, and these guys didn't."

Lyon also pointed out that there was a lot of damage done to properties by the former contractor. Using local contractors, the district has resolved some issues and is working through the rest.

"It including anything from running over and killing bushes to messing up concrete driveways," said Lyon.

McIntyre said hooking up Scott County Central School is next on the priority list -- and he anticipates water will be running there as well as in the Crowder area within the next two weeks.

"This contractor took the areas that needed less work and concentrated on getting them running to get us a revenue stream," said McIntyre.

He noted that progress is different throughout the regions in the first phase.

"There have been approximately 300 meter connections made," said McIntyre. In all, 805 customers have signed up for phase one, he noted.

McIntyre said that, based on information provided to him, the rest of the phase one customers should have running water in the next two to four months.

"It will really depend on the weather," he said.

It will also depend on tests run once all the pipes are in place. Lyon noted that installing the meters has also been subcontracted. Once those are in place, the lines will be flushed to ensure all the water is clean and clear and passes the necessary tests, he noted.

Meanwhile, sign ups are still allowed for the $150 fee in some areas of phase one. "If there has to be a line extension, we aren't signing any customers up unless they want to pay for it all," McIntyre said.

Also, phase two, which encompasses areas in northwest Scott County, is taking sign-ups.

"The preliminary designs are being worked on right now," said McIntyre. "Depending on the number of customers, we hope to get started with the final designs and easement sometime in the spring, and construction would begin in late 2011 or early 2012."

The quicker people sign up, the more speedy the process will be, said McIntyre. "If we had 50 more customers sign up in the next two to three weeks, it would speed those dates up considerably," he said.

To sign up or receive additional information, call McIntyre at 573-887-0079.