SALYERSVILLE – The Magoffin County Fiscal Court met in special session last Thursday, awarding bids for a water project a longtime coming.
On October 8, the fiscal court agreed to award the bid to Jones Contracting, LLC, at $448,040, for Phase 2 of the KY 378 Water Project.
Magoffin County Water District Manager Dwayne Arnett explained to the court that this will extend the water lines past the gravity-fed line on KY 378. He noted that Jones Contracting came in as the low bid and all their references checked out. He said this part of the project will include a pump station and extended lines on KY 378 all the way to Pennington Branch.
Arnett also noted that the project will be paid for through the federal grant system of Community Development Block Grants, awarded through the fiscal court.
The project to extend water lines to the furthest reaches of Magoffin County started in 2019, spearheaded by then-Magoffin County Judge/Executive Matthew Wireman, with funding starting to roll in around 2023.
Arnett told Mortimer Media Group, “The start of the first one, what we done was we split this up into two different phases. We had a couple hold-ups on some areas, so in order to get the ball rolling on it, we split it into Phase 1 and Phase 2. Phase 1 of the project was for 542, 378, 1502 and Jake Wireman Fork to go out as far as we could go through gravity feed.”
As for Phase 2, which they awarded the bid for last Thursday, Arnett said, “The money on this part of it came through the fiscal court, so this part is only to extend the water line on 378. There’s a pump station involved – what they call a pneumatic station. It’s got bladder tanks and stuff on the inside of the station that builds up like old wells used to do, so this will allow us to have legal pressure and also above legal pressure all the way to the mouth of Pennington Branch.”
Arnett told the Mortimer Media Group that they already have a number of new customers signed up for water service on KY 542 and the Rt. 7 part of the project, and the first part of 378. Contractors have already set roughly 35-40 meters, with approximately 25 already active. He also said it usually costs upward of $1,200 to set and install a new meter, but it is free for this particular project.
“On this project, first time ever, we have it allocated that whenever people sign up to get water meters, in order to get them on there and to not be a strain on everyone financially, most of the time the meters are half price because they are through a contractor and they’re paid through grant money, so we have nothing to do with it,” Arnett explained. “With this project, these is free meters for everybody who wants to sign up on it, so if you have an existing residence where we’re extending this water line, come sign up. We’ll send guys out to make sure you’re within where the water line is going to be and it’s free. We want to make sure everybody has access to water and it’s not a financial burden on people in these areas.”
Sam Bailey was not in attendance at last week’s meeting.
