By Courtney Freeman
Apostolic Truth Tabernacle will hold a youth rally on Friday, May 2 beginning at 7:30 p.m. For the service we have two good young preachers tag teaming, Bro. Will Hibley of Pine Burr,Mississippi and Bro. Cruz Johnson of Summit, Mississippi. There will be food and fellowship after the service and everyone is welcome to join us.
The Heritage Society will be holding a meeting, Thursday, May 1 at 5:30 p.m. We will be preparing for our Sale on the Trail Fundraiser on Saturday, May 3. We will be serving pulled pork sandwich lunches for $10 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. We will also have a garage sale then. We’re accepting donations for the garage sale if anyone has done some spring cleaning. They can be left on the heritage buildings porch.
The village of Robeline held their April monthly meeting last Thursday. Besides the financials, the village adopted the yearly mileage and are opening up for bids for the Village’s lawn services. The Village was also offered a cotton gin steam engine that came from the gin on Cotton Gin St. This would be displayed in the park as a piece of Robeline’s history.
Added to the agenda after a vote was for a Swyft representative to speak. He wanted to speak on the Village’s concern about fiber being laid in the village. They have already bored along the state highway right of way through town because they of course did not need the Village’s permission to do so. Which caused many of us to lose water multiple times. Due to this, the question came up about more damage to water which Sabine Water would fix, and damage to sewer lines. Which the village would be responsible for since the representative would not agree for them to fix them if they damaged the lines.
They explained that if allowed they would not bore like before but would use a missile crew that would dig in about 3 ft sections. So in theory they would not hit any sewer lines but would still not be held responsible if they did. I do not know if line damage would be something the Mayor would be allowed to fix himself or if we would have to hire someone to come in for the emergency.
As we do not have a sewer operator and have just been fined for that.The village has been trying to find one but none of the operators who work on other local systems will put their license on our sewer system due to the condition it is in.
Which leads me to the big point of contention on last week’s agenda, the sewer rate increase. The proposed rate increase to $45 was voted down. Aldermen French and Sowell voted no and Aldermen Solice was absent. The idea of using our sales tax was discussed or only taking the grant portion of $740,000. Aldermen French stated his answer was no to an increase or using the tax. Further explanation was given on Friday to Mayor O’Con that the tax could have been used as an offset if needed but could not fulfill the total sustainability requirements. Therefore to even receive the grant portion a rate increase would be required.
Which to put it plainly is fair, why would the state offer us help if we’re not willing to help ourselves. Also why would they offer us over $700,000 if there is nothing wrong with our system. The sewer system should operate on its own funds. It doesn’t, the village general fund has to offset it. The sewerage account only has around $17,000 in it.
When a line broke under Hwy. 6 it cost $8,500 to fix. A line breaking at a lift station cost $6,500. These are just in the last 2 years.
We should have two main pumps on Hwy. 120, we have one and it’s been patched on. These pumps cost around $50,000. As the engineer who has inspected our system said, we’re one pump failure away for an emergency.
People think it’s fear mongering to say we could be told by LDEQ to have to say we may have to get septic tanks. To me, scarier news was that wasn’t the only option, the system could be fined up to $20,000 a day. Or due to sewage being a public health concern they could come in and have the system fixed up to code and adjust our rates for us to pay for it. To my understanding none of that money would be a grant i.e. forgivable like LRWA is offering.
If anyone is wondering why the clinic has taken so long, the answer is LDEQ. The gas station tanks leaked which was hazardous. So they hired a crew to take out all the contaminated dirt and then bring in clean dirt. Sabine Medical did not get to pick the crew or get a bid. They just got the bill.
