Gainesboro Cut Break For County Jail Sewer Leak

Gainesboro Aldermen voted to forgive $2,500 on the Jackson County Jail’s water bill after a sewer leak caused the jail to use over 985,000 gallons of water.

The county racked up a $11,000 bill last month. Gainesboro Town Clerk Lisa Dodson said Jackson County Mayor Randy Heady asked if the city would be willing to forgive $3,000. Gainesboro Water Department Director John Pigg said the sewer leak has not been found and believes it could potentially be an internal fixture within the jail causing the leak. Aldermen Tom Goetz said the county has been made aware of a potential leak multiple times before and that he was not leaning toward forgiving the county $3,000 off the total bill.

“I personally am not feeling forgiveness for it,” Goetz said. “It sounds to me like they have been warned, they have been told and until it got to crisis now, now we want something.”

Dodson said the county jail frequently pops up on the water department’s leakage report. Aldermen Beth Young said she would be willing to forgive the county $2,500 with a stipulation that the county makes efforts to resolve the leaking issues.

“I still think that we need some confirmation that they are resolving any and all issues they have with leaks,” Young said. “Granted we are all going to get on the leakage report occasionally like you said but $5,000 worth, and I know it happened over a 30-day period.  I might be willing to forgive them $2,500 but I’m not sure about letting $3,000 out of $5,000 go.”

Dodson said the county jail’s average bill per month is roughly around $4,000. Pigg said once the jail noticed a big leak was happening the jail started to try and temporarily address the issue.

“I had talked to the sheriff and the administrator of the jail and they said what they were doing was they were starting after lights out at roughly 11pm shutting the water off in the back.”

Pigg said shutting the water off had drastically helped the issue. The city forgiving the $2,500 would avoid the county jail using the one-time adjustment that every customer receives. Dodson said she figured up a one-time adjustment and it would have only forgiven roughly around $100 off the bill.

In other business, Aldermen approved to apply for the Local Government Investment Pool Grant. According to the Tennessee Department of Treasury, the grant is to help local governments reduce the need for additional tax revenue.

Aldermen approved to move forward with looking at what needs to be done regarding water lines at Hillside Drive and North Murray Street. Pigg said the lines run across private property. Pigg said multiple homeowners have expressed complaints about the performance of the lines. Pigg said it is not an emergency but something the city should look at ahead of time.

Water Plant and Water Distribution Department employees were approved to receive compensation pay for unused vacation time.

Aldermen approved to apply for two grants for the Roaring River Cultural Alliance to help fund the pocket park project that has been approved on Main Street. The aldermen also approved the committee for the alliance which will consist of Karen Parks, Hope Vargas, Sheila Hunt, Valerie Goetz, Tom Goetz, and Nancy Pruett.