Hume receives grants to pay for new water lines, hydrants, meters

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

The city of Hume received a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant for water department improvements. Cecil McKinley, who is semi-retired from the city, said the grant would help put in new lines and equipment from the tower to business and residence customers.

"It's for putting in new distribution lines, new fire hydrants, valves and meters," McKinley said. "We'll put in more loops to keep the water fresh. If you have a line going out to a dead-end the water can get stagnant and you have to flush the lines, this will prevent that. We only have two loops in the lines now and this will add several more."

According to McKinley, it has been a long time coming.

"I started working on this in 1998," McKinley said. "I've seen quite a few people come through since then. Kaysinger Basin helped with an engineer and he retired and they got me another one and he died. There have been four city clerks since we started. We got through it though and this will really help the city."

The water system now in use was installed in the 1950s and fixing the equipment was getting expensive.

"We had one line that was concrete, asbestos and paper and it was very expensive to repair it," McKinley said. "This will get rid of a lot of leaks and save the city a lot of expenses."

McKinley also is hoping the upgrade to the water system will reduce insurance costs by getting a better rating for their fire department.

"A four-inch hydrant was the biggest they had," McKinley said. "Now all the new hydrants are on six-inch lines. The water pressure should be higher, everything from the water tower out will be new. This should help in getting a better insurance rating."

McKinley also expressed appreciation for all the help he has received over the years and wanted to be sure everyone got credit for their part in the success of the project.

"Sue Bacorn, she's from Springfield I think, was the grant writer," McKinley said. "The engineer was Al Reese from Wichita. Jamie Cannon is our city clerk and Warren Corp is the water and wastewater technician. He's got his water license and he's working on his wastewater certification. Until he gets that we're operating on mine but once he's ready it'll be time for me to go."