A lack of progress by the Lyerly Town Council is one of the reasons Councilwoman Juanita Baker said she won’t seek re-election.

The voters were promised new water lines inside the town limits and that hasn’t happened, according to the councilwoman. Baker, Mayor Charles Jones, Councilwoman Debbie Carnes and Councilman William Bell are not seeking re-election.

“Well, I’ve got a question to ask everybody. In three months our four years are going to be up. Are you all really satisfied with what we’ve done these four years?” the councilwoman asked.

This question quickly produced a “no” from Councilman William Bell sitting on the opposite end of the table.

“We’ve spent too much money,” Councilman Bell said.

“Have we done what we said we wanted to do four years ago?” Baker said.

“I’ve done forgot what we said we were going to do,” Bell said.

“One thing we told all the residents was that we would try our best to put new water lines through town and wee have not,” Baker said.

The councilwoman was afraid that Lyerly officials would procrastinate and the project would falter. Currently the town receives a portion of the county’s sales tax funds. But those tax funds are contingent upon the voters’ approval every five to six years.

“If we don’t get it (sales tax dollars) the next four years, you can kiss that goodbye because there won’t be any money,” Baker said. “We have not done what we told the people we would do. And, it’s really bad that everybody looks at you and says, ‘You all didn’t do what you all said you were going to do.’ One person cannot do it and it takes everybody.”

Immediately, council members and even people in the audience began discussing the town’s low water pressure. Even the town’s General Superintendent Harold Ragland said the half-inch water line to his house doesn’t provide much water pressure.

“. . . it’s not going to carry two faucets at one time,” Ragland said.

“. . . Harold, did you get the pit in over there?” Baker asked about an uncompleted town project.

“Nope.”

“How many years?”

“We will get it in one of these days,” Ragland said.

“But how many years have you been doing it?”

“. . . three, or something like that.”

“That is the way our water line is,” Baker responded.

“Well, we can hire a bunch more help and we can get it, if that is what you want to do,” Ragland said. “We’ve done more than what you think we’ve done.”

“Okay tell us.”

“We went all the way down Highway 114 and hooked on all those houses on a two-inch line and got them on a six-inch line. We’ve done the same thing over here on mill village. We are in the process of doing that . . . we are fixing to put in 300 feet of six-inch line and do away with that two-inch line,” Ragland said.

“That’s good,” Baker said.

“I think we’ve put in a about a mile and a half or two miles of (water line) on Back Valley Road. We done that ourselves,” Ragland said. “With other things that have to be done here in the city, there isn’t a lot of time left for this other stuff.”

15 CUSTOMERS

The Back Valley Road project added 15 additional customers to the Lyerly water system, according to Ragland. That project cost about $90,000 with funds coming from sales tax funds and a larger than normal tap fee coming from the new customers.

“It just seems that in four years we could have done much better,” Baker said.

“Everybody can do better than what they’ve done,” Ragland said.

The failure to replace lines wasn’t the only problem. Ragland, who is well within retirement age, is the only certified person to operate the town’s water and sewer facilities.

A few years ago, the council wanted someone trained to take Ragland’s place. That hasn’t happened.

“What was it? Two years ago you were going to hire someone to get certified.

“He’s learning. He’s learning.”

“How long will it be before he can go take the test?”

“It will probably be another six months.”

“What are we going to do if (Ragland) has a stroke and cannot come to work six months?” Baker asked the council. “This is something we need to address and think about. I mean, sure, he’s been saying the last four years he’s going to retire. But he cannot retire because we have not got anybody that knows where everything is at.”

“Mike is getting there. Mike will be ready before I have a stroke,” Ragland said.

“You don’t know that, because I sure don’t mean to fall and break my hip either,” Baker said.

“You’ve got to kind of be optimistic here,” Ragland said.

NEXT MAYOR

Instead of trying to lay down direction for the future, Councilman Bell, who is also not seeking re-election, said the next mayor and council could deal with it.

“That looks like that would be a problem for the next mayor and council,” Bell said.

“It should have been a problem for us four years ago,” Baker said.

“I know it should have. We’ve been dragging our feet,” Bell said.

“We really have. This is one reason why I didn’t run for mayor, because I was asked by people in Lyerly to run for mayor. But I just cannot put up with this. It drives me crazy that nothing gets done, it’s slow or gets put off,” Baker said.

“If you all are not satisfied with what I’m doing, I can leave tomorrow,” Ragland said.

“No you can’t. . .”

“Don’t tell me that I can’t.”