Boil Water Advisories a point of concern at Perryville meeting

lance.gaither@bluegrassnewsmedia.com

During a meeting of the Perryville City Council on April 11, local leaders spoke about the frequent boil water advisories affecting Perryville and western Boyle County.

The advisories have been caused by the existing waterline being broken during the ongoing project to install a second water main along Perryville Road. At the time of the meeting, there had been seven instances of the water line being broken resulting in a boil water advisory.

“We have been having a lot of questions,” said Perryville Mayor Rob Kernodle. “This is causing difficulty for us, not as a city, but for our residents.”

Boyle County Magistrate Tom Ellis spoke to the council to express concerns his constituents have brought to him regarding the frequent boil water advisories. His constituents have voiced frustrations with the outages and high sewage fees from having to run water through their lines to clear the dirty water.

“In my six years as a magistrate I have never had complaints in the magnitude that I have had over the last 90 days or so about the breaks,” Ellis said. “I had a call from a woman who has twins. She has been unable to sanitize their bottles. These people want compensation because they know their bills will be affected by the breaks.”

He questioned why the city has not been using proper equipment to prevent breaks.

“I was told that the city had sounding equipment that could find the line,” Ellis said. “After the third break, I was told that the machine would be on site to find the line. You could even use the old-school method and have two guys in the ditches to find the line by hand.”

In addition to the water line breaks, he explained that the project has destroyed sidewalks.

“It affects commerce and it affects individuals,” Ellis said. “All these things could have been planned better or taken care of along the way.”

Danville Mayor James Atkins was in attendance at the meeting and spoke in response to the statements made by Kernodle and Ellis.

“I want to apologize to the council and citizens of Perryville for any inconvenience this project has caused,” Atkins said. “These are accidental breaks and we are doing the best we can to resolve the issue.”

He explained that the project is the installation of a second main that will prevent the need for as many boil water advisories in the future. Although the line was originally going to provide water to Washington County, the project will now include additional taps in Perryville.

The Perryville Council scheduled a meeting with Danville city staff to discuss the breaks and solutions.

In other news from the meeting, the council approved a zoning ordinance recommendation from the Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Commission. 225 South Buell Street has been changed from two-family residential to central business.

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