New Water Plant and Additional Water Capacity in Marlinton

The Construction of the new water plant in Marlinton is almost complete, and Mayor Sam Felton gives us an update about it.

“Thanks for asking about the water plant, Tim” said Felton. “We are nearly complete, for all practical purposes. By Friday we will have a “substantial completion” is the term that’s used, Orders Construction will be leaving the property by the end of the week, and will be gone until springtime and will return and  they’ll return and do the completion on the seeding and the exterior work and the outside water sales, or bulk sales (equipment.) It’s an automated system (and it) will be placed there in the front side of the water plant where that you can pull off along Ninth Avenue going in either direction. And we won’t have the turn around situation like some of the trucks coming in with trailers and that type of thing (they) will be able to just pull through. There is an arm similar to what you would have at the car wash. It is not something that you will have to be parked in an exact location. It will have a wand that will come out over the vehicle and then a flex type of line that you can fill the tank or the drum with. They will be able to pay there twenty-four hours a day with if they come in with proper change to operate the machine. They will be able to get their own water sales.”

Will the bulk sales machine be coin operated?

“Actually, it was ordered as a coin operated, but I had already asked for a dollar currency reader for the system, because it would defeat the purpose if we had to have our men there with rolls of quarters to accommodate customers coming in and out” he said. “So, with typically five- and ten-dollar sales, it will take one-dollar bills. I don’t know if it is going to be multiple currency of not, but I know it is set up to read one-dollar bills -or will be.”

“So, that’s something that will help us tremendously, so that the operators there will not have to stop or maybe pause in the middle of their primary work to do bulk sales, So, we’re anxious to get that taken care of.”

Is that water potable?

“Yes, it certainly is” Felton answered. “Of course, you have to keep in mind that once it leaves the premises, it does depend on whatever tank it is going into, there’s where the difference lies. It is a drinkable water that’s going into the tank, but obviously it needs to be a cleaned tank if it is for human consumption.”

“But one of the things I started to say (is) I am anxious that when the crew does come back, there will be final clean-up of the construction dust and so-forth that is in the plant now” he said. “There is going to be a white glove clean-up of the inside of the plant. And then I am anxious to do a couple of open houses towards springtime and let residents of our town pass through the plant and see what their money has been invested in, because this plant will serve Marlinton and the surrounding area for the next forty to fifty years at least. And, as we were talking earlier, when I look around and read the paper and see what other water plants and other water systems in our state, some areas are really struggling. They’ve been on boiled water advisories for years and years, So, we are really blessed in having this plant coming to completion and it will serve the area well, I do believe.”

“There is new security features for water plants also” Felton added. You will be able to see that there is fence around the walkway that goes up to the sedimentation tanks. There’s lighting that’s required on each side of the building. We had a few issues with the neighbors on the Ninth Avenue side in particular, so we are going to have to put shades on the lighting so as to not disturb interior rooms of the homes adjacent to the water plant. But those things will be able to be overcome real well. You will (also) see some grooming that’s taken place around the back of the plant.”

“I think that overall it is a good system” he said. “And keep in mind that part of that project included the new three-hundred-thousand-gallon tank up on Cemetery Hill, so we are going away from the project with at least a hundred thousand gallon more capacity from what we had before, and that’s always important in the event of a fire issue.”