Turrell awarded grant for sewer pond

Turrell awarded grant for sewer pond

Mayor ‘ so thankful’ for much- needed funds

news@theeveningtimes.com

All of Turrell Mayor Dorothy CooperÍ’s “begging and pleading” efforts have paid off for the city.

Turrell was recently awarded a $345,000 grant from Arkansas Natural Resources Council to fix the city’s crumbling sewer pond.

“Oh my God, I am just so thankful to everybody,” Cooper said. “Senator (Keith) Ingram was instrumental in this, and we thank him so much.”

The sewer pond has been steadily deteriorating for about a decade and needs to be repaired because it is not draining properly. The pipe is clogged due to beavers and the city will need to get a backhoe in there to remove the obstruction and several loads of gravel to fix the levee.

Also, the city needs to build a new bridge to get to the pond. The old bridge was removed in 2009 because it was falling down.

The only way to access the sewer pond is through private

property.

ANRC has already given the city $51,100 to build a bridge. Costs to replace the bridge are about $50,000 to $70,000. Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge has offered to lease Turrell a railroad car bridge in the meantime.

The city also has $100,000 from an insurance claim for a sewer pump which burned up, that Cooper said they can put toward the project.

“So all together we have almost half a million dollars,” Cooper said. “It will fix a big majority of the problems that we have there.”

Cooper said the first task will be to build the bridge then have engineers come in and assess the work that will need to be done on the actual pond.

“We will have that conversation

soon about what exactly

we need to do,” Cooper said. “So right now we are sitting on Go. It’s a process. But I am just so appreciative for how the state has come in and helped us. It has been hard for Turrell to get help in the past. So I am just thankful and I appreciate everybody who helped with this.”

By Mark Randall