CLARKSBURG, W. Va. — The Harrison County Commission has selected its project to back as an entity for the upcoming cycle of the Small City Block Grant.
As explained Thursday to the commission by Kylea DeMarco, a Project Engineer with Thrasher, the project would extend water lines to three rural areas in the county, Stevens Run Road, Hoop Pole Hollow Road and Long Run Road.
“These are areas in the county that are experiencing difficulty with their private wells, if they have springs or anything like that,” Kylea DeMarco, a Project Engineer with Thrasher said. “They’re having difficulty and their water quality is not good.”
The total cost of the project would be around $2 million, with $1.5 million requested from the block grant and $500,000 coming from other sources.
Months ago, residents along Stevens Run appeared before the commission seeking a deal with the Greater Harrison PSD to begin the project. However, due to the additional construction costs that come with transporting the water up a hill in one section of the proposal, the per customer cost was too high for the households.
Since then, Dave Shearer, a Lost Creek resident said “more and more people are having more and more problems.”
Normally, Shearer replaces his water filter every three months, which weighs two or three pounds when full of sediment.
“About five weeks ago, my water pressure went down extremely,” he said. “I went down to change the filter and the filter weighed about fifteen pounds, and that was in a ten day period.”
Shearer is sending a mason jar with a sample of the water reaching his well before it gets to the filter, along with two filters to be tested.
This experience is not a unique one on Stevens Run as, according to Shearer, all but about two of the 30 households are dealing with the sediment levels increasing within their wells, causing some to replace pump systems multiple times.
“What we’re trying to do is provide good, reliable water to these residents so they can have a glass of water at night or make coffee in the morning and not worry about what’s in it,” DeMarco said.
The search for project funding ultimately led to the Small Cities Block Grant and Lea Wolfe with the Region 6 Planning and Development Council.
One of the first things the council, along with Thrasher, did was combine the Stevens Run Road project with Hoop Pole Hollow and Long Run to make it a more appealing project for the grant approval committee.
The group also believes it will help the project meet the criteria to even be considered eligible.
“You do have to meet the income of 51 percent [low to moderate] income,” Wolfe said. “These areas, we’ve already checked, they do not qualify under the 2010 census data, so we will be performing an income survey. That is the biggest criteria.”
With the commission approval, the Planning and Development Council can begin the income survey. Wolfe kindly asked residents to be nice and assist the process by answering their few questions, if they receive a call from her.
Should the project qualify under the income requirement, there is still a long road before ground is broken.
“There is a second public hearing, and that’s when I will submit the actual grant for signature by the county commission,” Wolfe said.
Then, the Stevens Run/Hoop Pole Hollow/Long Run project would be sent to Charleston to go up against other Small City Block Grant applications submitted from around the state.
Final word on approval or rejection, according to Wolfe, could be as late as December or January 2016.