Newspapers / The Chowan Herald (Edenton, … / July 17, 2019, edition 1 / Page 2
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A2 THE CHOWAN HERALD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 2019 Town: Violations to continue until plant work finished Customers also notified of further THM violations BY NICOLE BOWMAN- LAYTON Editor Town of Edenton sent out a letter to its utility cus tomers warning them to be careful when drinking Edenton’s water. It also noted that the town ex pects the problem to con tinue until the upgrades to one of the town’s water treatment plants are com pleted on or before Oct. 15. Dated June 28, the letter said the town’s water sys tem is in violation of state law because the water con tains elevated levels of tri- alomethanes, which are considered as carcino genic. Written by Town Manager Anne-Marie Knighton, the town’s 2,107 water customers received the letter with their utility bills in the mail. Trihalomethanes (THM) are formed as a by-product predominantly when chlo rine is used to disinfect drinking water. The letter noted that customers have a right to know what happened, what they should do and what the town is doing to correct the situation, Knighton wrote. The letter said there is no need to boil water or take other corrective ac tions. However, anyone with specific health concerns should consult a doctor. The letter said any one with a severely com promised immune system, or who has an infant or is pregnant or elderly should seek advice from health care providers about drink ing the water. If this had been an emer gency, people would have been notified within 24 hours by the town. “However, some people who drink water contain ing trihalomethanes in ex cess of maximum contami nate levels over many years - the state defines as 70 years - may experience problems with their liver, kidneys or central nervous system and may have an increased risk of getting cancer,” Knighton wrote. Town is required by the state to routinely monitor for the presence of drink ing water contaminates such as THM. In a previous interview Knighton said the town has been exceeding the total THMs maximum contami nant level allowed by the state since 2015, when the rules changed. The town has been notifying its wa ter customers of the viola tions and of the plan of ac tion to bring the water sys tem back into compliance. Water samples collected in June from one or more sampling locations show that the contamination concentration exceeds the standard or the maximum allowed for THM, the letter said. The sample location with the highest average level of total THM had a concentration of 0.163 mg/ L. — twice the average standard of .080 mg/L. To solve the situation, the town’s water treatment plants are being renovated and upgraded. “This new treatment process will totally remove the precursors that cause total THMs and the Town will be back in compliance with drinking water stan dards,” Knighton wrote in the letter. Edenton expects the up- grades at the Beaver Hill Water Treatment Plant to be completed by Oct. 15. The letter notes that addi tional work was added to the contract, extending the completion date. Besides upgrading the water treatment plants, the town will “continue to make all reasonable ef forts to reduce the total THM levels in the water system.” Those efforts in clude increased line flushing, and reducing the level of chlorine injected at the water treatment plants. Chowan County’s Water Department Director David Tawes said the county’s water system that serves 4,100 customers is in compliance and does not exceed federal or state standards for total THM. COUNCIL Continued from Al step forward. Though de velopers reached out to be tween three to five banks, one bank remains inter ested. Vaughan said he hopes to have an update about the property at the next council meeting on July 22. To segway away from Leotta for a bit, so as to remain on local revitaliza tion efforts, Councilor Sambo Dixon gave a brief report about ongoing ef forts to raise funds to re store Kadesh AME Zion Church on Gale Street. Dixon reported that David Cooper, senior partner with the Compass Group, is assisting the lo cal committee seeking to raise the funds needed to repair the interior and ex terior damage this his toric house of worship sustained during Hurri cane Isabel in 2003. There has been a complete structural report com pleted which uncovered that the stained-glass win dows are Tiffany. Louis Comfort Tiffany (Feb. 18, 1848-Jan. 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He later took over as de sign director of his father’s famous Tiffany and Co. in 1902. “I think there’s some thing more exciting each time we find out anything about that building,” Dixon said. The committee meets weekly to push the project forward. “I’m really really encour aged,” Dixon said. “If we can save that building, it will be a huge benefit for this community.” Back to Leotta, who wanted to know more about the progress to im prove the quality of the town’s water, Town’s Public Works Director Corey Gooden spoke about work underway at Beaver Hill and Freema son water treatment plants. Progress moving forward includes how most of the electrical con duits have been installed and concrete has been poured for the floors. Beaver Hill will be on- line in mid October with Freemason early next year. Both plants will be compliance with state Department of Environ mental Quality standards. Though water quality will improve, the town’s 2,107 water customers will con tinue to get mailers in their utility bills that say trihalomethanes are present in the water sup ply because the formula the state uses to calculate maximum levels of THMs is based on a 4-quarter running average. How ever, the Town expects to FILE PHOTO SAGA Con struction is seeking fi nancing to renovate the Hotel Hinton on East King Street. be producing water that meets state requirements on or about Oct. 15. In other business, the NC Local Government Commission Coach Team suggested so as to assist Town Hall with budgeting, is to consider adopting small projects capital ordi nances for capital projects that are expected to take more than a year to com plete, funded through grants or loans and have project cost of more than $25,000. This ordinance helps the General Fund’s fund balance position by moving large one-time cap ital expenditures funded through grants out of the General Fund. The Fund Balance calcu lation is based in part on total expenditures in the General Fund — by adopt ing the small project capi tal ordinance, council shifted almost $1 million in expenses in Fiscal Year 2018-19 from the General Fund to the Capital Project Ordinance. While the En terprise Funds (Water and Sewer, Electric Funds) don’t follow the same guidelines for calculating fund balance as the Gen eral Fund, a Water and Sewer small capital project ordinance will be helpful to the staff for budgeting purposes. If the projects are in the traditional Water and Sewer Fund, we have to forecast year end revenues and expenditures and then forecast revenue & ex penses for the next fiscal year’s budget. So, given the large number of recent grants received for the Water and Sewer Fund, Town Hall thinks it will be helpful to set up a small projects capital ordinance. Town Finance Officer Virginia Smith prepared the Small Projects Capital Ordinance for council’s consideration. It includes the NC Department of En vironmental Quality (DEQ) grant for the East Eden Street Storm Water Im provements; Grant for DEQ Storm Water Feasibil ity Study; Grant for the DEQ Water System Asset Inventory and Assessment Grant and the Coastal Area Management grant for the East Water Street/Queen Anne Creek Bulkhead Im provement Project. This ordinance also includes the Transfer of Funds for the Town’s matching re quirements for the grants from the Water and Sewer Fund to the Capital Project Ordinance. Also, council approved an order for Engineering Ser vices for Storm Water Feasi bility Study. The Wooten Company identified this grant opportunity for the town and took the lead in writing the grant applica tion. The engineering ser vices for the project are ex pected to cost approxi mately $50,000, half of which is funded from the grant Wooten Company en gineers, especially Wil Larsen, has been working with the town extensively on drainage improvements to the East Water Street area Knighton said the town staff was excited to have this grant to be able to look at opportunities further up- stream on the east side of town to help minimize flooding downstream. And council approved a task order for Engineering Services for East Eden Street Storm Water Im provements. This grant will pay for the engineering and installation of innova tive underground storage system that will add storm water capacity to the Town’s system and will also improve storm water quality by filtering out bad nutrients. “We are super excited about this project. We think it might help us with future application funding requests from Golden Leaf Foundation,” Knighton said. And, council approved an order for engineering services for East Water Street /Queen Anne Bulk head Replacement. This grant with NC DEQ will fund $111,000 for replace ment bulkhead at Queen Anne Creek. This project will take some extra engi neering to make sure the new bulkhead does not conflict with the planned repairs and renovations to the storm water gravity line near the kayak launch. The city must also take care not to interfere with Hayes Bridge and make sure the new bulkhead ties in with existing bulkhead at Elizabeth Vann Moore Park. The Small Project Capital Ordinance includes funds for the $29,000 in engineer ing fees however $12,000 of this amount is for construc tion administration and ob servation. Knighton said the town does not anticipate having to spend nearly that amount of money. Gooden will monitor the construction, however, if the town runs into poten tial problems, it will need the Wooten Company’s as sistance. MARCUS Continued from Al awareness event from 5-8 p.m. Saturday, July 20, at Colonial Park. Jackson hopes the event will honor Marcus and re member other people who have been lost to any type of violence. She asks that those who lost a loved one to violence to submit pho tos of the victims, along with their names and dates to her via the Marcus Jack- son Tribute page on Face- book, https://www.face- book.com/marcusjack- son. tributepage. She also asks that those attending the event wear orange, which signified RACES Continued from Al Monday for re-election. On July 5, Roger Coleman filed for at- large seat on council, while Jimmy Stallings filed for mayor. Councilman/mayor pro tern Steve Biggs is expected to make an an nouncement later this week. Any others who wish to run for office in this election that they must file by noon Friday, July 19, with the election be ing Nov. 5. Though these were the latest filings that could be reported be fore Tuesday’s press time, more filings will be reported as they oc cur on the Chowan Her ald’s Facebook page and in subsequent print editions. gun violence awareness. “I hope it can become the start of a movement our town needs,” Jackson said of why she organized the event. “Violence has become a part of this com munity. It’s time to say something about it.” Jackson said along the activities planned are edu cational tables, live enter tainment and food. “I want it to be a time where people come to gether and learn,” she said. “When I share what hap pened with others I get a reaction. Sometimes peo ple are thankful for it.” Violence effects each person who knew the vic tim differently, Jackson said. The event will give TAYLOR Continued from Al this a safe community. Last thing - being a great leader comes with being a great follower,” said Taylor, John A. Holmes Class of 2001. Sambo Dixon an nounced last week that he is running for re-election to the 2nd Ward seat that he has represented since 1997. This is Taylor’s second bid for Town Council. In 2017, Taylor ran against Craig Miller, who was elected to an at-large seat on Town Council. Taylor announced then that he was intent not only to run for Town Council again, but that he would re main active within the community — promises that he has kept. Staff writer Miles Laytonmay be reached at mlayton@ncweek- lies.com people a chance to talk with others and interact. “Hopefully, this positive energy will be contagious,” she said. Marcus loved food and always wanted to make sure others had food, Jack- son remarked. “He liked to make sure everyone had something to eat,” she said. “As the event moves forward, I don’t want to make people pay to eat. I want to keep it a positive vibe, a spirit- driven event with a lot of food and a lot of laughing. “In light of it all, I want it to be a place where people can be OK to make a change,” she said. “If we don’t do anything or do something negative, I don’t SUBMITTED PHOTO Tray Taylor signs the line to run for election to the 2nd Ward seat on Edenton Town Council at the Chowan County Board of Elections office. * think we’ll get very far. Now that we know we’re impacted, the question is, how do we move forward? It’s worse to stay in that place and not talking about it. It becomes a perpetual cycle of violence. Our over all goal is to break that.” Jackson said she copes with losing Marcus by tak ing life one day at a time for her two other children and six grandchildren. “Marcus wouldn’t want me to stop,” she said. “I can still feel him pushing me.” The thing Jackson misses the most about her son? His smile. “His smile was conta gious,” she said. “It brought out a light in me.” While Marcus may have been remembered by his John A Holmes classmate as a class clown, Iris teach ers respected him, Jackson said. “He made people laugh. His energy was so refresh ing,” she said. This event will also be a way to share Marcus with future generations, Jack- son said. “Marcus’ son needs some thing to remind him of his fa- ther,” she continued. “He’ll never know his dad, how he held him. We just have pho tos and recordings. But this Correction Due to a typist’s error, the incorrect charges were listed in tire July 10 CrimeWatch listings for two peo ple arrested by the Chowan County Sheriffs Office. Kiana Holley, of Dillards Mill Road, was arrested June 11 of driving while license revoked. Melissa Nixon, of Rocky Hock Road, was arrest June 11 for cyberstalking. We apologize for the error. CHOWAt^HERALD (USPS 106-380) Published Every Wednesday Adams Publishing Group Entered as a second-class matter August 30,1934 at the Post Of fice of Edenton, North Carolina, under Act of March 3, 1870. SUBSCRIPTION RATES Daily Advance home delivery area $39.50 (Chowan, Perquimans, Pasquotank, Camden, Currituck, parts of Gates) Elsewhere in continental United States $50.17 *Plus applicable sales tax. Activation fee of $2.99 will be collected with all new subscriptions. Deactivation fees may apply for early cancellation. To place a classified advertisment, call our Customer Care Center at 252-329-9505. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO: The Chowan Herald • P.O. Box 207 • Edenton, NC 27932 Telephone: (252) 482- 4418 Fax: (252) 482-4410 nlayton@ncweeklies.com 1 _* will help tell the story of his father.” She hopes people come to the event with “positive vibes” and come out learn ing something new. “I hope, if anything, they get something to put in their toolbox to use. If not specifi cally for themselves, then to help someone else down the road,” she said. “It’s all about helping each other.” For those who would like to contribute to the event, contact Jackson through the Marcus Jack- son Memorial Tribute page.
The Chowan Herald (Edenton, N.C.)
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