Members of the Coffee County Commission approached the Manchester Water and Sewer Commission recently to ask the city to either run smaller, non-fire flow capable pipe, or to pick up the cost for running six-inch lines that would provide potable water to JE Sartain Road.

The Water Commission meeting held on April 9 is the latest in ongoing discussion between the two government bodies to run city water roughly a mile along the rural county road.

As it stands, the residents of JE Sartain Road are currently pulling water from a spring that runs through the area. The city has promised to install pipes if the county will purchase them.

The impasse is that to provide fire flow and fire hydrants, the city would need to install six-inch lines. The county, however, only approved the cost of four-inch lines for a difference of about $30,000. JE Sartain resident Ken McMahan offered to kick in $15,000 during Thursday’s meeting.

During the meeting, Mayor Joey Hobbs said that he could not recommend spending more city money in the county while the city water and sewer systems have so many problems. He also said that the project should be done the proper way with sixinch lines.

Commissioner Tim Morris said he did not have the votes to allocate additional money for the project.

“Coffee County has $36,000 to bring to the table to help put water in for them. I’ve gone through a lot of my ‘political clout’ to get to this point. I bring this begging you to help these people because they have no water,” Morris said.

“There is land on that road that would probably be developed… maybe one or two more houses,” Morris said.

Hobbs asked why the county cannot contribute the full amount.

“It comes out of Rural Infrastructure, right? It’s a fourmillion dollar fund,” Hobbs said.

He said the commission needs to explain to the residents why they chose not to allocate the cost of $64,620 for the six-inch lines.

Critics in the county noted that the city will get water revenues for the homes served, while the city also noted that all repairs to the lines will also be at the cost of the city and that the revenue from water fees will take years to cover the cost of the pipes.

Commissioner Dwight Miller said the Rural Infrastructure fund was not intended to run water to rural residents.

Hobbs noted that the county donated millions of ARP dollars to Hillsville and West Warren utilities.

“The rural residents pay you taxes. What do they get for their tax dollar – what service do you provide them for their taxes that you can’t find $30,000 more dollars,” Hobbs asked.

Miller said those taxes should be used for schools and other projects, not for water.

Alderman Thomas Crosslin said, “Those are your constituents. You have $4 million in a rural infrastructure fund and you’re coming to us over $30,000. Think about that. Voters, you should think about that too. We’ll have backhoes out there digging lines and installing six-inch pipe. That way these people don’t have to sit and watch their house burn down.”

“But the county is saying, ‘not our problem’ because we send out water bills?”