Major water leak repaired in McDowell

Monterey, Va. – The leaks in the McDowell water system appear to have been repaired according to a report by County Administrator Roberta Lambert to the Board of Supervisors at their meeting last week.

“We believe that we have eliminated one of the major leaks in the water system,” she said. “Hopefully, at this time, the only leak. We contacted the Virginia Rural Water Association. They sent in Kenny Reynolds, who is their circuit rider, at no cost to the county, with electronic detection equipment. He located a leak in the first hour that he was here checking the system. That leak has been repaired.”

During his two-day stay in McDowell, Mr. Reynolds helped workers locate several components of the water system.

“When Mr. Reynolds was here, while they were repairing the leak – he stayed with them the two days that it took to repair the leak – he looked through a lot of the system, right in the Village of McDowell, and found several different sections that they were uncertain about,” she said. “Meters cut off, valves and things like that. He helped them locate some of those. Some of those had actually been paved over and various things, but he was able to find several of them for the gentlemen that were working on the system.”

The pool access road off Route 220 has been discussed for over a year now and a temporary road was in use last year. However, that gravel road has now been closed at the request of the Virginia Department of Transportation. The county recently has put in another request with VDOT for funding to reopen and complete this access road.

“We are moving forward with the recreational access funding application, which would be a road off 220 into the pool and a playground area,” she said. We did have representatives here from VDOT on May 23, who did a final inspection on the sidewalk trail project. They are processing the recreational access application. Hopefully, we will be able to get that to the Commonwealth Transportation Board in Richmond. I would hope it would get there for their June meeting, but we will see how that moves forward. The final piece that they were needing was a revised cost estimate for the construction and that is being developed.”
In other business, Supervisor Kevin Wagner, Betty Mitchell and Roberta Lambert made a trip to Augusta County recently to discuss a project that could benefit county tourism promotion.

“We spoke to a representative from Augusta County and I want to thank the CSPDC also for hosting us and for putting together a pretty nice preliminary presentation for Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike designation as a scenic byway through Virginia,” Wagner said. “We approached Augusta County at their Supervisor meeting this month. They do not express any interest in pursuing anything any further. So, that plan is currently shelved.

For Allegheny Mountain Radio news and alleghenymountainradio.org, this is Keith Carson.