Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 71F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 71F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.

Some residents along Millpond Road will be the first in Pasquotank County to see improved water pressure when construction on a new pump station and new water pipes in the Newland area begins next month.

County commissioners approved a $3.7 million contract for the new pump station and other improvements in July. In addition to the new pump station, the project will also install a new 12-inch water main from the Commerce Drive water tank to the new pump station and water main upgrades along Northside Road and portions of Millpond Road.

Utilities Director David Smithson told commissioners that the contractor will be on site the first week of September and that the project is expected to be completed by May 19. The contractor will have to pay liquidated damages of $500 a day if he fails to complete the project on schedule.

“Materials have been ordered,” Smithson said. “The contractor is going to give me a projected timeline this week.”

Smithson asked the contractor during a pre-construction meeting last week to install the 5,300 feet of new six-inch pipe on Millpond Road first. It will replace the current two-inch pipe there.

Smithson said the new pipe on Millpond will increase water pressure for both residents and fire suppression efforts.

“This will give a benefit for that area and the (contractor) is agreeable to that,” Smithson said. “The reason we want to put in the six-inch line first is that it is currently a two-inch line and that is a bottleneck in their flow. A soon as we put this six-inch line in and it comes up online they will see an added increase in water pressure.’’

The improvements follow the county’s $1.4 million purchase of the water storage and water distribution systems serving the Newland area from the South Mills Water Association two years ago.

The sale brought all of Pasquotank under the county’s water system, adding around 950 customers in the Newland area.

The county installed a temporary pump station on Northside Road when Pasquotank started supplying water to Newland last December. The temporary station is not currently enclosed in a permanent structure.

“The permanent pump station will actually have two pumps, one to back up the other,” Smithson explained. “It will have control panels and what is there now is good enough to just get by. But it is not what you want for a long-term solution.”

Officials expressed concern about whether national supply chain issues could affect the construction timeline. However, Smithson said the only possible issue would be getting a generator for the new pump station. It would be used for backup power in the case of an electrical outage.

“We do have one of ours on the temporary site and we are just going to use it on site if the (new) generator doesn’t arrive,” Smithson said. “There should be no other delays.”

Smithson also told commissioners that Pasquotank has received a $150,000 state grant to pay for a complete field survey and assessment of the Weeksville water distribution system. The grant will cover the entire cost of the assessment, he said.

“What this means is that an engineer will come out here and they will actually GPS every value, every infrastructure that we have,” Smithson said. “We have a very good record now but this will be even above what we’ve got.”

The state received more than 260 applications for assessment grants and Pasquotank was ranked 121 by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s State Water Infrastructure Authority. The money comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds allocated to North Carolina.

County Manager Sparty Hammett told commissioners that Pasquotank was one of the few utilities to receive a grant from the fund that is not listed as being distressed by the state.

“We are financially very sound, we have nice cash reserves and a water rate that is going to pay for (improvements),” Hammett said.

Commissioners were also told that an insurance claim has been filed to pay for damage done by a recent lighting strike at the Wesley Well I water well. The July 31 strike did around $25,000 in damage to numerous electronic boards and other components at the site.

The well will be offline for about a month while repairs are completed. It is one of the county’s top producing wells at 1,150 gallons per minute and one of the deepest at 421 feet.

“We are still waiting for some parts,” Smithson said.

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