Posted 11:10 am Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Whitehouse Residents Express Grievances About Water
By ADAM RUSSELL
Staff Writer
WHITEHOUSE - Citizens filled the seats and lined the back wall of City Hall Tuesday night as the council met for a special meeting regarding current water restrictions and well schedules.
Staff Writer
WHITEHOUSE - Citizens filled the seats and lined the back wall of City Hall Tuesday night as the council met for a special meeting regarding current water restrictions and well schedules.
The meeting was called initially as a budget workshop, but member after member of the community stepped forward to the microphone and expressed their personal grievances and recommendations and asked questions of the council and city staff concerning water.
Mayor Danny Hogden welcomed discussion and the gathered crowd obliged. Prior to public debate, Hogden questioned staff - including City Manager Ronny Fite and Public Works Director Jeff Tomlin - about the status of well No. 9, which has failed to pass three consecutive bacterial tests required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Tomlin said wells consistently do not pass the first test and that the system has been continuously flushed since testing began. One test has come back clean, but later tests failed. The sample taken Monday was taken to the lab and did not pass, said Fite, who hopes the sample drawn Tuesday will begin the process toward making the well available.
Another well, No. 8, will be available for testing as early as next week, Tomlin said. With one or both of the wells on line, Fite is confident the city will be able to reevaluate the water restrictions.
"Unfortunately (the test failures) can happen and it is happening to us now on these wells," he said.
Tomlin said the two wells in question were initially scheduled to be available Sept. 29. The city is attempting to have them producing water eight weeks ahead of schedule to offset the city's current needs.
The mayor and city staff addressed past problems with releasing restriction information to the public and said that, while the media can be reliable, citizens should call city hall and access the water restriction information available.
The city is restricting outside water to Mondays for even-numbered addresses and Thursdays for odd-numbered addresses, and the city asks that residents minimize watering to 30 minutes. Hand-watering is also an option for residents for flowers, shrubs and trees.
All of the council members said they acted in the best interest of the city when they denied the 25- and 10-year contracts the city of Tyler presented. At this point, with citizens growing increasingly impatient with restrictions, the handling of negotiations, the well projects and long-term projects such as Lake Striker, the council is hearing about the problem, they said.
"People that I have talked to are unhappy," said council member Charles Parker. "While I wasn't on the council when some of these things happened I think it is incumbent upon us to look at other options."
Parker believes the current plan - with regard to the wells and Lake Striker - appears to be the best possible alternative for independent water, but he has grown tired of hearing water is on the way.
The citizens who spoke shared the same sentiments. Leo Bradshaw called for re-opening negotiations with the city of Tyler and researching and planning for long-term availability through Lake Striker. He said residents are heavily invested in the community and to see the problem escalate as it has is discomforting for him.
He said the entire restrictions process has been a "mess" and that, while investing in Lake Striker should be explored, the success of the city depends on water now.
Larry Lough, a longtime resident, said the city is in a bind and the problem will only worsen if the city is depending on rain. He called the actions and planning of the council and the city "mind boggling."
Jim Hutto said the separation from Tyler before establishing viable water sources that would be available to the city was unconscionable and called for renegotiation. He felt the city had used poor judgment and that the community was not properly informed about the ramifications of turning down the Tyler contracts. City staff assured Hutto and the others that accepting the contract may have doubled water bills for most customers.
"You don't burn the bridge before you get off the island," Hutto said. "If I ran my business like this I would be unemployed."
