Temporary sewage treatment moves forward with $1.2 million price tag
Mariel Williams
editor@mitchellnews.com
New council member Beth Holmes was sworn in at the Spruce Pine Town Council meeting last week.
Watershed
The council voted to accept a land donation. Holmes, an attorney, recused herself from this vote because one of her clients was involved.
“As you know, several years ago, the entire watershed property was sold to a company called 138 Chatham — that is basically Tim Sweeney,” Town Manager Darlene Butler said. “The bulk of that property he has given to the Southern Highlands Conservancy, and this remaining bit is our watershed. We obviously have rights to it, and he’s offered to give that back to us.”
Temporary public works
The council voted to rent a temporary location for the Spruce Pine Public Works Department from Stamey Enterprises. The department was badly damaged by September flooding.
Mayor Phillip Hise recused himself and left the room for discussion of the lease agreement. Butler explained that Hise’s son-in-law runs Stamey Enterprises.
The rental property is located at 6365 Hwy. 19E. The rent will be $2,000 a month and the lease is for six months.
Infrastructure flood damage
There were several updates on damage to town infrastructure from Hurricane Helene in September.
Butler informed the council that the rental rate for temporary sewage treatment plants has increased, owing to the fact the town hopes to only use them for six months, whereas the rental company had hoped to secure a 24-month lease for the units.
The current expected cost is $1.2 million in six installments. Spruce Pine administration hopes to get this cost reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, however, that reimbursement may take up to two years to process.
Butler noted that there are still some Spruce Pine residents without water, owing to damaged lines.
“Some of the line damage we won’t know about until we try to test it,” she said.
Some streets, Butler said, have half the residents with water and half still without. This happens when half the street is on one line and the other half is on another line.
“It’s hard for folks when their neighbors have water,” she said.
Butler also noted that the west end of Lower Street (Locust Street) had undermined areas that had begun to break away, and that section of the road has been closed off.
Butler’s retirement
Butler formally announced her retirement at the end of the year. She had previously posted her retirement letter online.
“After 27 years, I’m going to retire,” she said. “During this period of emergency … I feel like it’s important to have your next town manager in place for the rebuilding phase, which will take several years.”
The town began advertising for the town managers position this week. The deadline to apply is 5 p.m., Nov. 27.
Reaching immigrants
Council member Wayne Peight said that he has some concerns about the difficulty of helping members of the Spruce Pine immigrant community in the wake of flood and storm damage.
Peight noted that the U.S. Border Patrol — along with numerous other outside law-enforcement agencies — had come to help out in the immediate wake of Hurricane Helene.
Seeing Border Patrol uniforms in the area, Peight said, had frightened some local immigrants. There were also, he said, rumors that immigrants were being counted at relief distribution centers, and he had heard that some apartments with large numbers of immigrant tenants still have no water and residents have been drinking out of a local creek.
Hise said that he had visited those apartments and been assured that the residents do have water, but also that he would look into the situation again.
Butler suggested that the Red Cross could help with outreach to the immigrant community.