Oct. 16, 2002 – Residents of the Nadir community are invited to a public meeting on Friday evening called by the Public Works Department to present plans for the installation of sewer and water lines in the area.
According to Public Works Commissioner Wayne Callwood, representatives of his department, the Water and Power Authority and the contractors carrying out the work will be present. The pipeline projects extend from the Nadir road along a residential stretch Public Works calls Stromboni Road to the Turpentine Run road, according to a Government House release.
The meeting is set for 6 p.m. at the Nadir basketball court.
At the last public meeting on the matter, held on Sept. 27, the 12 households along the target road near the Clinton E. Phipps Racetrack found out about the project via notices hand delivered to their homes three days before the meeting. The rest of the 150 Nadir Homeowners Association members were notified by a meeting announcement issued the day of the meeting itself. About a dozen persons showed up for the meeting; others said later they had learned about it too late to take part.
As a result of complaints raised at the meeting and elsewhere in the community, Public Works officials delayed the pipeline work, which had been scheduled to start on Sept. 30, for a month.
The project entails Public Works realignment of a sewer pipeline, to be followed by WAPA installation of lines to bring long-promised potable water service to the area.
Public Works officials have said the pipeline can be laid along either of two routes: through Stromboni Road or through the basketball court, depending on which is more cost effective. At the Sept. 27 meeting, residents learned that vehicular traffic through the area will be restricted during work hours for more than six weeks while the work is under way. Project director Charlie Bornman said workers must sink the pipe 20 feet into solid rock so that future work on a planned flood-control project does not disturb the sewer lines.
Bornman said the department is facing a federal deadline to complete the sewage system work. The project is being funded by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, and if the territory doesn't complete the job on schedule, the V.I. government will have to return the money, he said.
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