The Jay town council continued to address the dirty water issues Monday night with an update that the town is continually flushing the lines and working with Dewberry Engineering to explore possible grants and a small loan to complete the first phase of pipe replacement.
“We're looking at a small loan for the first phase to get Highway 4 done,” said Jay Mayor Shon Owens. “We think that Highway 4 and Highway 89 have the 6-inch lines, the majority of which are the metal pipes. There is approximately 2,500 feet on Highway 4 that we have no access.”
Jay Project Manager Eric Seib said that following the recent lightning and thunder, calls came in about dirty water. Seib said that the shaking probably broke loose sediment, so the town began flushing the lines near the areas of the phone calls.
Seib said that of the 36 work orders that came in, 70 percent were water line or water meter related and 30 percent were gas meter-related, such as re-reading, shutting off or turning on a gas or water service.
“We are addressing the water problem in three ways,” said Seib. “We have and are cleaning the water tanks, flushing the lines and installing a new $20,000 carbon filter on Caffee Street.”
Engineering report
The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) the town is eyeing is limited in its scope, so the town plans to pursue a grant available through Northwest Florida Water Management, which is not as limited.
Engineers are working with Robin Phillips on the August 1 deadline for the CDBG grant.
The Water Supply Grant will open for applications about August and Owens said that the timing would be great if the water lines on Highway 4 are replaced just as the FDOT comes behind to repave, allowing the water lines to be moved outside the FDOT's right-of-way.
“We need to be able to access those lines in the future,” said Owens. “This grant would be between $150,000 and $200,000 and will really help us with replacing the old water lines.”
