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TOP JOBS

By ADAM RUSSELL
Staff Writer

JACKSON HEIGHTS — After discussing community options regarding installation of a viable sewage system for area homes, residents voted to create a sewer and water corporation.

More than 40 community members met with Lufkin lawyer John Stover and representatives from other rural sewage development entities inside the community center Thursday in hopes of finding a more expedient solution for the ongoing sewer problems that have plagued the area for years.

Community leader Nola Chandler, who has been instrumental in seeking resolution to the problem, had been in discussions with Smith County Municipal Utilities District 1 about a sewer system project. That project would include MUD funding the project out of pocket and by garnering grant funding from the Texas Water Development Board.

A $350,000 Texas Small Towns Environment Program grant, to pay for house connections within the Jackson Oaks subdivision has been obtained. However, Jackson Oak’s reception of the STEP grant depends on the development of a sewer main collection system which would require a multi-million dollar commitment. Initial plans involved MUD expanding its existing main lines around seven miles down State Highway 31, branching out and eventually servicing more than 250 homes.

Ms. Chandler said discussions with MUD have eroded to the point that the community feels in the dark about a project it initiated.

Ms. Chandler said MUD cannot give definitive answers about the scope, direction, costs or projected billing increments of the proposed sewer project. Thursday the community voted to create the East Smith County Sewer and Water Supply Service Corp. and elected three board members to oversee the process until an election can be held.

“This is serious,” Ms. Chandler told the crowd as they searched for board nominees. “We need workers; people who are ready to get out there and sell this thing to the community.”

Ms. Chandler, Kevin Phillips and Brenda Wickware were elected and will help organize future meetings until the official election.

Stover, who has more than 30 years of experience in rural water and sewer development, said the creation of the corporation will give the community more options as they proceed. Before the vote he explained the pros and cons of developing a localized sewer system. He wanted residents to understand the difficult undertaking ahead of them saying that construction and maintenance of a sewer system “is not an easy task.” He told the crowd the distance that MUD would have to cover to bring their main line to the area made them an unlikely partner and not suited to meet the rural community’s needs. He did say, however, that the corporation should leave all options on the table including MUD and a possible partnership with the area’s water supplier, Jackson Water Supply Corp. Cost effectiveness is the key, he said.

Early estimates by MUD indicated supplying the 82 homes in Jackson Oaks would create $200 monthly sewer bills, Vice said during an April community meeting. Initial estimates on similar local systems put the cost at around $1.5 million, Stover said. This would create a $6,900 per-month payment split among around 250 homes, or $28 a month bills to pay for the construction, before maintenance and labor costs associated with upkeep of the system.

“What do you want to do?” Stover asked the crowd before the vote. “Do you want to wait for another entity like MUD or take steps to begin the process?

“Do you want to organize to proceed or see if one of the entities do their thing?”

The hands went up and voices rang out to proceed.

After the vote, members dug into their pockets, purses and billfolds and took up a collection to pay the $25 filing fee for the certificate of formation.

Stover told the crowd before they filed out of the community center around 9 p.m. that there was still a long road ahead and a multitude of processes including securing grants for funding, gathering as many members to be part of the system as possible, engineering and construction before their problems would be solved.

“Community involvement and support is crucial to moving forward,” he said.

After the crowd left Pineywoods Resource Conser-vation and Development, Inc. Coordinator Ken Awtrey said he had been involved in the development of numerous rural community sewer and water systems and in his experience the process is a long and arduous one.

He said some local corporations have been stuck in limbo for around 10 years and that an average outcome, from establishing a corporation to final construction averages about four.

In a recent interview with the Tyler Morning Telegraph, Vice said he had no knowledge of the meeting or the community’s interest in proceeding without MUD.

He said the district has been working diligently and quickly during the preliminary funding process. He expected the project, at the current pace, could possibly break ground in spring 2009.

Ms. Chandler said personal conversations with TWDB revealed to her that MUD had not been in contact with the development board since March 2 and that a grant application had not been filed.

TWDB Director Jeff Walker said, via e-mail, that TWDB and MUD met on Feb. 18 to discuss pre-application for potential Economically Distre-ssed Areas Program funding. He did not give a specific date as to the last inquiry about the application’s status but said TWDB “has been in contact with representatives of the district as it works through the process to meet requirements of the EDAP.”

It is not unusual, he said, for EDAP projects to take “considerable time to come to fruition.”

“All our information indicates that the MUD is moving forward on the project,” Walker said.