Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 20, 1994 TAG: 9412200091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLAND LENGTH: Short
Potential users in the Rocky Gap area objected to being required to hook up to the service, and the county Board of Supervisors agreed to turn down a $700,000 Community Development Block Grant from the state rather than keep that requirement.
``[The hook-up requirement has] already been taken care of. It's not going to happen,'' Supervisor Molly Thompson told about a dozen residents who came to attend Monday's scheduled board meeting.
The meeting had to be postponed to 1:30 p.m. Dec. 29 because only Thompson and Chairman Billy Reed Ramsey showed up. The other two supervisors were unable to attend.
A $1.2 million grant and loan package from Rural Economic and Community Development, formerly the Farmers Home Administration, is still approved for the project to extend a line from the West Virginia-American Water Co. through East River Mountain Tunnel into Bland County. And part of the state grant may still be salvaged, depending on how many Rocky Gap residents end up taking water from the line.
A door-to-door survey will be made between now and the end of January to determine potential usage. Connections will be free to residents with incomes below certain levels. Others would have to pay $400 to hook on.
Rocky Gap is served by two small water systems run by volunteers, and residents occasionally get state Health Department notifications to boil water before drinking it. But those opposing the mandatory hook-up policy said their water supply was satisfactory.
by CNB