Louisa City Mayor looking into providing water to neighboring town of Fort Gay, WV

By Roberta Cantrell

BSN Editor

The Louisa City Council met in regular session on Tuesday evening, March 11.

One of the main topics was having the council consider authorizing Louisa Mayor Harold Slone to investigate options and requirements to provide water to the neighboring town of Fort Gay, W.V.

“The city council has authorized the me to work with the mayor of Fort Gay to investigate if it would be desirable, feasible, and efficient for the City of Louisa to provide water to the town of Fort Gay in the future on a wholesale basis much like Louisa provides the water to many of the Big Sandy Water district customers,” Mayor Slone told Big Sandy News. “I will investigate and report back to council with the findings and if desirable seek grant funding in the future for the idea.”

The mayor said he thought one way to grow more customers would be to jump across the river and “do business with those folks.”

“We currently have a line that goes from the Point Section under the Levisa River,” said Mayor Slone.

Earlier this year the Fort Gay Water system had been reported to be out of date using old technology and old equipment.

According to a plant worker, Shawn Thompson they have one pump with the back-up not working, so if the pump goes down it would take several weeks to fix and nothing to back it up until it’s working again.

However, one Fort Gay resident spoke out against the idea in a public platform saying he will seek the position of Mayor in the next election.

“If this happens, the town of Fort Gay is done for,” said Tim Kitts. “And if this passes, why do we need anybody at town hall? So, if this goes through, I am all for doing away with all members of council and police judge and city workers. Just shut it all down and throw up both hands and say screw it. Instead of trying to fix the problem just pass it to someone else! What a shame our town is over folks, what a shame! This is a shame and this is the reason I’m running for mayor. Something has got to be done to straighten up this town.”

To clarify what is going on with the Fort Gay water situation the Fort Gay Interim Mayor, Ralph (Junebug) Dent issued a public statement.

I’d like to make some clarification to this misinformation over the Town of Fort Gay water. To start with the Fort Gay Water Plant is currently producing water and will continue to produce. The idea with Louisa is a backup in case of break downs. We are not giving up producing water for our residents. As of right now we have Lavalette PSD as a back up for out of town customers only.

What we are trying to do is provide a backup source for our in-town customers as well.

So, with that being said we are not turning over our water to an outside source, they will be a backup if needed.

We currently have put around $80,000 into our plant replacing pumps and such.

We have also hired two employees that will be reading meters and will also be training to become water plant operators.

Also, the water plant does not fund the town itself. It only covers cost of labor, parts and the cost of producing the water. I have the Mayor’s office open on Saturdays from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m., if anyone wants to come and voice their opinion or have any questions.”