ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 7, 1997 TAG: 9701070071
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: CLAYTON BRADDOCK STAFF WRITER
When bids on a large water distribution system for Giles County are opened as early as Feb. 5, the county may begin to realize its long-sought hope that water will unlock the county's economic future.
The system is designed to serve more than 4,000 customers in five towns along U.S. 460 with water pumped along the highway the length of the county from Glen Lyn to Newport.
Bids were advertised to reach contractors in Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and throughout the region.
The first step will be letting bids for wells to be drilled in Bluff City and Pearisburg.
A delay in drilling caused by rock density in the area may push the initial drilling back 20 days, said Tim Brown, executive director of the county's Public Service Authority, which supervises both water and solid waste projects.
The project cannot begin until the state Health Department has examined and certified the well water.
The second contract will be for construction of a 200,000-gallon storage tank, a booster pump station, water lines and other connections. Eventually, the system will also draw water from the New River, Brown said.
The service authority has set a conference for interested contractors in its office on U.S. 460 near Pembroke beginning at 10 a.m. on Jan. 21.
Initial funding for the water distribution system comes from $7.3 million in federal loans and grants, much of it from the Rural Utility Service, once the Farmer's Home Administration, and the Appalachian Regional Commission.
The service authority and the towns are aware that bids on some regional projects have exceeded cost estimates, sometimes by as much as 40 percent.
But they also believe they have continuing federal support because the water system is a regional effort covering large areas of land and population.
The primary goal, Brown explained, is to reach the residents and businesses along the highway to improve the safety of their water supply. The project, however, is also considered an opportunity to boost current and future industry.
"It has never been the aim of the PSA [Public Service Authority] to provide water for the outlying parts of the county," Brown said. Promoting industrial development is not the goal of the federal grant, but such growth will be an outgrowth of the project, he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB