The Town of French Camp is working to figure out how to alert someone when there’s an issue.
Sherry Kirby said there has been waste overflowing from the pump station into her yard. And she wanted to know what she does in a situation like that.
She said it began in late October and she noticed it when she let her dog out. Kirby said she asked her husband, Bo, what to do. She said she spoke with Mayor Glen Barlow and Water Superintendent Galen Shumaker.
“I told her I didn’t know who to contact, but she could come before the board and we’ll figure it out. So, here we are figuring it out,” Barlow said.
“But nothing was done about it,” she said. Kirby said the problem happened again in October and she went through the same protocol and again, she felt like nothing was done about it.
She said she spoke with Bo Henderson who’s also with the French Camp Water Association.
“Then I realized, this has nothing to do with Bo. I don’t even know why I’m talking to him,” Kirby said.
She said the issue took place again in November and Shumaker told her that he had to order a part. Kirby said Shumaker came out Monday and installed the part.
She said she was told to contact the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and they came out.
“They said that what Galen did by laying out the lime was the correct thing to do,” she said. “And that we had made a way to contain it,” she said.
Kirby said she was told that a big rain would have to come to wash the sludge into the creek and there wasn’t much to be done to clean up her property.
“Now, it’s not fair to say he didn’t do anything. He came out and fixed the belt on it twice,” Henderson said. “He did something, he just didn’t know what the problem was and how to fix it.”
Henderson said once he opened the pumping station, Shumaker realized a part had gone out and another one was burned up, which was causing the issue.
“I just think we should have a standard of operations, so when something happens, people know what to do. Because I didn’t know what to do,” Kirby said. “I just so happened to be married to someone on the board, if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Henderson said because Shumaker has to be at the Town of Carrollton meetings on the first Tuesday of each month, the same time as the Town of French Camp meetings, he can’t be in French Camp.
“He said he was willing to come down if we could meet with him to talk about sewer,” he said.
Barlow said the board could set up a meeting with Shumaker sometime in January to discuss the sewer issues.
“It wouldn’t be able to be before our December meeting,” he said.
Kirby also asked about who would fix her land because of the erosion that had been caused. She said it leads directly to the pumping station.
“If nothing’s done, the pumping station is going to fall right into the creek,” she said.
The board voted to allow Shumaker to repair the damage to Kirby’s property.
Henderson also asked about sewer taps and sewer rates. He said it wasn’t fair that a business is paying the $15 cap and is using more than that.
“I think they should pay more,” he said, using the Academy as an example.
