Martin Creek Road Residents Weigh In On Potential Public Water Access

A new multi-party partnership could expand access to public water along Martin Creek Road in Putnam and Jackson Counties, but not every resident plans on taking advantage.

Judy Smith has lived on her property for some 42 years. She said that she uses a gravity spring at the top of the hill.

“My spring is so clear,” Smith said. “It is 97.9 percent pure according to Tech, back when I first moved here 42 years ago and had it tested. It’s beautiful. So no pump, and everybody that comes up here that moves up here and don’t have water at first, they come here and get water at my place.”

Resident Justin Ramsey said he feels the same way, and that he’s fine using his spring.

“I don’t need it,” Ramsey said. “I’ve got a spring it flows in, so it’d just be more trouble getting it hooked up to my house, I believe. But now for some of them down here, then yeah it could be a good thing.”

However, resident Suzanne Weeks said that she’d jump at the chance. She said that she has a lot of problems getting her water from a spring.

“We realized that we were down here in a flood plain so we figured we’d be the last on the list,” Weeks said.  “You know when you move here you get what you get. But once we found out that people were maybe willing to do that, darn right we were happy about it.”