BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — The Martin County Water board met newly appointed managers and reviewed ongoing projects in a special session Thursday, announcing traffic delays for Collins Creek Road starting June 10.
Alliance regional manager Erica Bogenpohl provided monthly reports and introduced two newly appointed managers who will be stationed in Martin County: Todd Adams and Colby May. Adams replaced Craig Miller as division manager five weeks prior, while May came on board a week later as local manager, a position most recently occupied by Tyler Hall.
“They definitely hit the ground running,” Bogenpohl said. “[Alliance employee J.D. Damron] is still in town, too, helping them out, and will be for at least another month.”
Bogenpohl, from Alliance headquarters in Missouri, assured the board: “I will continue to be here for the board meetings until they’re comfortable for me not to be here.”
Bogenpohl provided welcomed news for Spicy Mountain residents. After being out of operation since January 2022, the token-operated water kiosk is functioning again. Customers can purchase tokens at the district’s billing office.
She delivered more good news: the district resumed pumping water to the federal prison at Davella on April 23.
“That’s crucial to our revenue stream,” remarked Bogenpohl.
Water loss for April was 73.83%, a reduction from 75% in March.
By the end of April, the district had spent 81% of its annual repair allocation.
“I don’t know if that’s any different from previous years, but I want to present these numbers to you frequently, so you know where [repair expenditures] are sitting,” Bogenpohl explained to the board.
Adams also delivered good news about the raw water intake project, saying Pace Contracting, the contractor on the project, would be installing long-awaited equipment over the next two weeks. The raw water intake project began Oct. 4, 2021. While waiting for its completion, MCWD has been spending an average of $35,000 per month for a rental pump and diesel to pump water from the Tug River at the mouth of Calf Creek to Curtis Crum Reservoir on Turkey Creek.
Meter and service line replacement on Collins Creek Road in Warfield is scheduled to start June 10. Alliance, which manages the project for the water district, issued a notice to residents of Collins Creek warning of travel delays between the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. MCWD expects the project to run for approximately 100 days and stretch into mid-September.