Water may reach Beverly by summer

On Wednesday night, a preponderance of North Beverly Street residents agreed to solve their water woes by paying the city to install a pipe that will bring ample running water to them by summer.

Their solution must be presented and approved by the Porterville City Council before any action can be taken. The council will convene Nov. 23 for a special meeting and will review the proposal then.

The 8-inch pipeline will reach from West North Grand Avenue to West Castle Avenue at a cost of about $320,000, that could be paid for by each of the approximately 30 residents during the span of several decades. The cost will be in addition to their monthly service bills that will be monitored via individual meters.

“You will have all the advantages of a very high pressure system,” Public Works Director Baldo Rodriguez said to the 15 residents who met with city representatives Wednesday night at Sequoia Middle School.

The residents, like many others citywide, currently lack any curbs, gutters, streetlights and sewer and running water systems. They agree, however, that getting a water system in place is a top priority.

They currently draw from wells that tap into water 80 to 120 feet below ground. Several of the wells are completely dry, others are unreliable.

“I’ve got a house that I can’t rent,” property owner Rose Rather said. “This will benefit us as far as rentals and property values.”

The neighborhood was annexed from Tulare County in 2006. The county does not hold property owners to the same infrastructure standards that the city does — an advantage for homeowners when an area is incorporated.

Some resident are frustrated that it has taken three years to get to the point they are at now.

“At least there’s a glimmer of hope,” Councilman Cameron Hamilton said. “In the county, there’s nothing.”

Hamilton and councilman Felipe Martinez are the sole members of a council subcommittee aimed at addressing the needs of the North Beverly Street residents.

Fixing the water issues in that neighborhood have become a top priority for the city council, due to the number of complaints it received during the past year. The residents worry about how they will get water for the next six months while the plans are drawn and the line is installed, because even an above average rainy season would not adequately replenish groundwater.

The time frame, however, is the quickest the city can manage.

“Six months is quick to the city, it’s like a bullet,” Martinez said.

The decision to have the pipe installed was made over another alternative — forming a community service district wherein, if passed by a simple majority in a ballot election, each land owner would pay for the infrastructure construction and delivery of water based on an assessment of their property taxes. They would also have to get loans from the private sector that city representatives said would be more expensive than the interest rates the city could provide.

“I know we got to have water, and we got to have it the most feasible way we can,” homeowner Don Roper Sr. said.

Contact Jenna Chandler at 784-5000, Ext. 1050, or jchandler@portervillerecorder.com.