10 Years In The Making: A Solution To Backwoods Water Woes

July 17, 2008

After waiting a decade, the residents of Backwoods Road in Century will finally see a solution to their water woes.

The Century Town Council voted in a special meeting Wednesday afternoon to rework a $1.4 million USDA loan to include water line improvements on Backwoods Road.

Back on May 22, the town received a symbolic $1,755,000 check for a USDA Rural Development Loan to improve water service in the area of Backwoods Road, but the council never voted to finalize the loan.

Since that time, about $300,000 was shaved from the project by decreasing the size of a new elevated storage tank near the intersection of Henry Street and Academy Street. The project was to also include generators for water wells and a new six inch water main from Shady Lane and State Line Road, west along State Line Road to Highway 4A, and then south on Highway 4A past Backwoods Road.

The council had planned to “buy down the loan” by about $300,000, mostly from funds to be received from the state from back billing for gas service at the Century Correctional Institute. With that $300,000, the monthly loan payment would be about $64,000…with that money coming from increased payments of around $90,000 a month from the prison  system.

McCall said it would be several months before the loan was finalized, and he said he did not know at this point if the town would be still be able to buy down the loan by the $300,000 with the added expense of improving water service on Backwoods Road.

The next major hurdle, one that has been a problem for years, will be obtaining the right of way agreements necessary to install the new water line next to Backwoods Road.

Comments

One Response to “10 Years In The Making: A Solution To Backwoods Water Woes”

  1. Jack Moran on July 20th, 2008 6:29 pm

    I know the Backwoods Rd. area is served by the Town of Century Water System, but is it inside the Century City Limits?

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News