Lamar gets $500,000 for water tank project
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Thanks to a $500,000 grant from SC Rural Infrastructure Authority (RIA), the Town of Lamar is moving closer to re-establishing its municipal water system.
At their June 12 regular meeting, Lamar Town Council discussed the grant, which will fund repairs and painting of the town’s two water towers. Council member Mike Lloyd said that according to Hanna Engineering, its possible the project could be completed within a year.
Grant administrator Jannie Lathan of Lathan Consulting, LLC said the project was originally estimated at 18 months, but after conferring with Hanna Engineering they found that a 12-month timeline could be feasible.
The RIA grant and tower rehab is part of a comprehensive loan/grant package Lamar is pursuing to finance over $2.6 million in repairs and updates for its municipal water system. The project would address several key system needs, including building a new water treatment plant at a cost of $1.2 million, sinking a new 250 GPM (gallons per minute) well for $362,700, and replacing dated and unreliable water meters with new RF (radio frequency) models.
The Town of Lamar has been purchasing all of its municipal water from the Darlington County Water and Sewer Authority (DCWSA) since February of 2016, when South Carolina DHEC shut down the second of Lamar’s two water wells due to trace radium detection. Sinking a new well and building a new treatment plant would allow the town to resume selling water to its residential and commercial customers, and could save Lamar a considerable amount of money each month.
Lamar’s proprietary water system was able to produce 1,000 gallons of water for around 75 cents; purchasing that same quantity of water from DCWSA costs about $2.73.
Meanwhile, the town continues to steadily lose significant amounts of water due to leaks, broken lines, and old, inaccurate water meters. Lloyd said that in the month of May, Lamar purchased 3.5 million gallons of water from DCWSA and billed customers for almost 2.5 million gallons – a loss rate of around 30 percent.
“We’ve got no idea where it’s going. The only thing I can figure out is that it’s in the water meters. I’ve been seeing cases where there’s two or three (residents) in a house and they’re only using 1,000 gallons a month. That kinda makes me believe the meters are not accurate,” said Lloyd.
Mayor Randy Reynolds agreed that the town has many old water meters and their replacement is a crucial part of Lamar’s water system overhaul plan.
Council also heard from Mike McDonald of Lamar’s sanitation department. McDonald told Council that since Lamar ended twice a week trash pickup in favor of a single pickup each Thursday, the local Darlington County recycling and trash convenience center has had trouble accommodating the large amount of household waste brought in all at once.
McDonald suggested a routine of two half-day routes to ease the burden on the county convenience centers and maximize the work hours of state prisoners on loan to Lamar from the Darlington County Prison Farm. He noted that during hot summer days, inmate laborers are not allowed to work when the temperature reaches above 93 degrees, effectively ending their Thursday garbage collection route after only about four hours of work.
“My recommendation is maybe that we try going back to twice a week like we have in the past. Things seemed to work a lot easier and smoother for everybody,” said McDonald.
After some discussion, Council voted to resume trash pickup on Tuesdays and Thursdays as of June 27, with this new schedule continuing until further notice.
Final numbers for Lamar’s 2017/2018 budget are still in flux, as Council members could not agree on how much to increase water and sewer rates. Lamar Town Council has scheduled a June 26 special meeting to finalize the budget, which must be completed before the end of the month.