As the Town of Flora officials and residents pitch in yet again to help out the people in Kearney Park with their water woes, Lawrence Morris with West Madison Utilities decided to blame Flora and the "paperwork" for the decades old problem. Morris told WAPT that it's taken so long because of the paperwork between West Madison Utilities and the Town of Flora.
"We finally got it together. You know, the paperwork can sometimes burn you out and delay some things," Morris said.
This statement comes despite the fact that Flora officials continue to work diligently to help West Madison Utilities connect the pipes that will run for more than a mile and tie into the main water line in Kearney Park. Flora Mayor Leslie Childress is working with the West Madison Utility District to hook up an emergency water line to the town's well.
West Madison Utilities still has no backup water system as required by health department regulation. But, that one is easily blamed on someone else, too.
County leaders said the community has been denied grants in the past to update the water system because of a failure by residents to fill out the required surveys. Officials said they are hoping residents will now be more motivated to get a new water system flowing.
There's more on the "survey" and grant denials HERE.
It would seem that many of the people of Kearney Park are having a hard time seeing they are being used by their "leaders" who don't care about doing anything but applying a bandaid to the problem. Maybe this time they will awaken to the reality of the situation.
One week without water. That's what nearly 500 households and businesses in west Madison County are dealing with.
Four hundred eighty-four West Madison Utility District customers have had little to no water pressure since last Sunday. They are all located in the Kearney Park area just north of Flora.
Utility Commissioner Nathaniel Johnson tells WLBT an old well collapsed and was shut down.
Sunday night a resident living near the area has running water and decided to share it.
"Friends of mine came by and said Erik we don't have any water to even flush out toilets. The little water that we have we have to wait until tomorrow to flush our toilets so I said no. It's time for me to do something so I went out, got a couple guys and girls together and we decided to do this and we decided we was not going to stop until we get the job completed," Erik Battle said.
Battle went door to door, helping his neighbors. The county is supplying bottled water to drink and residents have been instructed to boil any water available from the tap.
Flora Mayor Leslie Childress is working with the West Madison Utility District to hook up an emergency water line to the town's well.
No word on when water will begin flowing normally.
Madison County has restored water to about 250 residents, but another 250 are still without, officials said.
On Tuesday, officials with the Madison County Utilities Board attributed the outage to a pump that stopped in the Kearney Park community. Residents there have been without water for about three days.
The county has also brought in a 6,000 gallon tanker to provide water to residents to use for household purposes. Bottled drinking water has also been distributed to residents, county officials said.
County officials said the faulty pump should be fixed by the end of the week.
The issue of bad pipes, pumps, and a poorly managed Water District in Kearney Park and Magnolia Heights is decades old. For years Supervisor Karl Banks has used West Madison Water District to his benefit to keep poor and underpriviledged people in his pocket when he needed their votes. Banks has promised grant money and improvements so many times over the past 25 years that most of the residents have lost count. Yet somehow he has a new solution just in time for his reelection every 4 years. If only those voters put him back into office, he'll get it done for them. When he needs a scapegoat, he blames the whole problem on residents that refuse to sign a survey for the grant.
Watch the Water Board Commissioner at 1:01 of THIS VIDEO FROM WAPT trumpet yet another call for the illusory grant that never materializes. They have been in the "process" of getting this grant for years. Also, watch around 1:33 when the report quotes Banks using the survey excuse. Also, note that Mr. Banks doens't bother to provide a statement on camera.
During the last election cycle, I and the now Flora Mayor Leslie Childress were walking the streets of Magnolia Heights talking to folks. Childress was challenging Banks for Supervisor, and I was writing an article on the water problems in Kearney Park and how residents have had to deal with it for decades. One of my interviews was with Evelyn Brown, seen in the video above. She's been fighting this fight a long time. At the time of our visit, the residents were going through yet another water problem, with pipes busting and water heaters exploding in homes. Within 45 minutes of our first visits with residents, a car drove up full of Banks supporters to argue with us in the street about what a good job Mr. Banks was doing, and how a grant was available if he was re-elected. It became obvious that residents are being watched to ensure their compliance in the ongoing charade.
Same Old Story.
It's right out of the Bennie Thompson playbook. Keeping his district poor and black means Ole Karl stays in power. Too much infrastructure improvement might lead to investment from people with money and resources; people who wouldn't put up with this crap. Of course, in his bid to remain in power, ethics or the appearance of impropriety have never really concerned the longest seated Supervisor in Madison County.
Concerned citizens have tried to attend board meetings to see how they could help, and local contractors have offered assistance. But the West Madison Water District Board wouldn't know an Open Meetings Law if someone hit them in the head with it. When confronted with the fact that they haven't been doing their job, they simply go into executive session, and have even called the cops on residents who refused to leave the meeting.
Madison County is supplying water to residents around Flora who normally get their supply from the West Madison water district.
The 500 or so residents in the Magnolia Heights and Kearney Park areas went under a boil water notice Friday and the water system failed on Sunday, Butch Hammack, the county's emergency operations director said.
Repairs are being made to the system, but the well could be out of working order anywhere from three to 10 days, Hammack said.
The county has taken a 6,000-gallon tanker to the area for residents to use for household purposes and cases of bottled water for drinking, he said
This problem won't be fixed until people in Kearney Park come together and decide that Mr. Banks politics is not worth the price they are paying.
