Pine Haven plans for growth

With an anticipated growth of almost 50 new homes within the next few years, Pine Haven faces the need to upgrade hydrants in the upcoming subdivisions, C Bar and Knotty Pine.

At a workshop Tuesday morning, Mayor Karla Brandenburg discussed available funding for this program with town engineer Heath Turbiville of HDR Engineering,

Turbiville shared several options for which the town is eligible and may apply, some as grants and others as loans; a couple for which they may apply now for possible approval in June and others not available for application until after the 2022 legislative cycle.

Any projects for which these agencies approve funding will not be started until 2023, which is a problem for the anticipated upgrade and addition of hydrants in the areas for which the town is or will be responsible including the aforementioned developments.

At this time the C Bar is further along and has already run into issues with the existing water line. The development has infrastructure built in 1981-83 with six correlating hydrants. According to owners Robert Chamberlin and Greg Cottrell, they are building an expansion of 30 homes.

Any hydrants upgraded on this site will cost in the neighborhood of $6,000. The owners of C Bar will be responsible for replacing any hydrants covered by the roadway they plan to build over the existing fireplugs and, according to public works director Sunny Schell, they will probably cover at least three.

Both the town and C Bar dealing with the relocating and/or upgrading of the fireplugs must work with the DEQ for subject permission, according to Turbiville. He also advised the town to “have more discussions as the time gets closer”.

The town has received a direct deposit of approximately $47,000 from the state as a half payment with the other half expected in 2022. This money has not yet been utilized. The mayor plans to install all hydrants in one project with these funds including a much needed second on Boe Drive, “We want to wait to get the rest of this money and do the fire hydrants on Boe Drive and anything we need to do [in C Bar]. We want to do all that at one time.”

When asked for an anticipated date for the remaining state allotment, Turbiville told the group that no date has been set as yet.