Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 19, 1990 TAG: 9004190436
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: THAXTON LENGTH: Medium
He has awakened by 5 a.m. to start boiling it so his wife, Janet, and their two young children can take baths. He has carted his family's clothing to a coin laundry. Meals at the Mills household have been served on paper plates and in paper cups to avoid the issue of dishwashing entirely.
"Do you know how much water it takes to flush a commode?" Janet Mills asks. "You don't think about those things till something like this happens."
Sunday, the well broke down.
The corroded well pump was just the latest in a series of events that have made the seemingly clear issue of available water - for the Millses and another family in Bedford County's Union Hill subdivision - frustrating and murky. A fight over ownership of Union Hill's water system has carried on for more than a year and entered the court system this spring.
Roanoke Valley Service Corp., a subsidiary of CorEast Savings Bank, acquired the property at Union Hill 15 years ago as part of a bankruptcy or foreclosure, according to James Cromwell, the attorney who has handled CorEast's case in court.
Through its subsidiary, CorEast subdivided the land and built a community well and water system for a subdivision that eventually grew to nine homes, Cromwell said.
More than a year ago, though, the bank said it wanted out of the water business. "They're a bank, not a water company," Cromwell said.
The bank sent out letters informing residents of its plans and advising them to get together and take over the well. The residents, though, could not reach an agreement, and some people started drilling their own wells.
By the end of last year, the Millses and their neighbors, the Rezai family, were the only ones still counting on the bank's well. The bank began sending warnings that it would be discontinuing the water service and abandoning the well.
The two families say they still hoped, at that point, to reach an agreement to take over the well. But they said the bank had not taken care of the well or well house.
"The roof is falling down and there are snakes in there," Dawn Rezai said. Besides, they said the bank had shirked its responsibilities in trying to get rid of a well they were so dependent upon.
"When we bought our house two years ago, we were told there was a community well," Rezai said. "We've had one problem after another and they want no responsibility for it."
Health Department official Mike Painter said that because the well does not serve more than 25 people, the bank apparently has every right to abandon it. The State Corporation Commission regulates abandonment of wells serving more than 25 people.
Last year, the well served 28 people, but only the two families - seven people - remain.
In February, the Rezais and Millses asked a judge to stop the bank from cutting off their water. They also asked for damages of $25,000 for emotional distress and depreciation of the values of their homes.
Circuit Judge William Sweeney told the pair of homeowners he would stop the bank for 90 days while they could work out an agreement. The homeowners were to post a $500 bond with the court before the order was formally entered. For some reason, that bond was not immediately posted.
And on Sunday, the well broke.
The two families say they tried to reach bank officials Monday. They say they were told that the two CorEast officials who could authorize any repairs to the well were on vacation until at least Friday.
On Wednesday, they gave up on the bank, called a repairman and decided to deal later with who was going to pay the $700 cost of a new pump. By late Wednesday, the workers said they had fixed the well and replaced a pump they said was ruined by age.
The bank's response was reasonable, he said. "The bottom line has been that up until today, when the order was entered and the bond posted, there was no injunction," Cromwell said Wednesday.
The Rezais still are hoping to work out an agreement to buy the well. They don't believe that they can drill their own. Dawn Rezai said two experts have told her drilling might not be possible on her steeply sloping lot and given the location of some power lines.
If they reach an agreement on the well, though, the Rezais will now be the only users of the well that once supplied water to the whole neighborhood.
The Millses made the decision to give up on that well late one night this week during their dry spell.
Wednesday afternoon, workers were drilling into the ground in Millses' front yard. Their private well, which is expected to cost about $2,000, should be up and running by Friday.
"With all the headache and everything and with just the two of us fighting this thing," said Joseph Mills, "I just figured it was best to build our own."
by CNB