Endicott working toward road, well improvements

The Town of Endicott is in the early stages of looking into possibilities for road and well improvements. At the council meeting Aug. 9, Mayor David Bilow reported he met with county representatives regarding the process for seeking road improvements.

“The council at the request of the town contacted the county to see how the county could help the town,” Mayor Bilow told the Gazette.

There are no road projects slated right now, but Bilow said there is work to be done in town.

“We have a number of roads in town that need repair,” he said. “We're trying to look at different places where we can get this done. The county does have an agreement to help the towns in Whitman County.”

Mayor Bilow reported work such as pothole repair, chip sealing and grading needs to be done.

“The town has not decided that we can afford it or what to do first,” he said. “It was just basically fact finding at this point.”

In July, a group from the Endicott Bible Church, along with a mission group of 15 people helped to repair a section of sidewalk on E Street in town.

“They indeed did do quite a bit of concrete work,” said Mayor Bilow. “The town supplied the backhoe, but they paid for that project.”

Pastor Fred Tribble told the Gazette in July a group about a year ago had an idea that it would be effective to chip away at sidewalk and road projects one at a time in town and have volunteer work behind the projects.

“It would be nice if we could do that,” said Mayor Bilow. “Funding has got some issues, too. We have a number of things going on and limited dollars.”

Mayor Bilow also said a town council member is looking into getting help from residents.

“We have tried a number of things ourselves, and might get a crew of local residents to fill some potholes,” he said.

The town is also looking into grant funding for the continuation of a project for wells and water lines.

“Six years ago, we had a large water project in town where we had a new well drilled and several water lines repaired,” said Mayor Bilow. “But the amount of monies you get from a grant can't do a whole project. Our time has come where we believe we're eligible for some more monies.”

Mayor Bilow said Endicott has three wells, but one is offline with nitrate infiltration and another does not produce much.

“Basically, we have one well that produces all of our water,” he said.

He said the extent of the project will seek to fix this issue.

“It will help some of the main lines that were not replaced before and drill a new well,” he said. “We need a second well for a back up.”

Additionally, Mayor Bilow said the town is looking into adding a water line from the tower on the southwest portion of town to the wells on the northeast portion. This would make it so the town has two lines from the tower to the wells.

“We have one well on the northeast side, and the new well would also be on the northeast side. That's because that's where we own property,” he said. “We want to do a back up line across the railroad tracks. It gives us a line, a back up; if there's an issue with one we can still supply the town with this one.”

The town has also been suffering from water line issues recently.

“Five weeks ago, we had a leak in one of those lines we're going to be replacing,” said Mayor Bilow. “We are constantly patching lines. Leaking of water is not a good thing.”

The grant application has been turned in, and the timeline at this time is not yet known. If awarded, the town would need to start looking into matching dollars.

“We're trying to get a grant for this next phase, and it won't finish it, but it will help it,” said Mayor Bilow. “It's a grant, but the town has to come up with monies as well. We'll have to figure that out.”

Though the cost is not known, Mayor Bilow projects it to be a high cost.

“This is a commercial thing. Most likely it's a million dollar project,” he said.

He reported that if the grant is awarded, some of the next steps will be looking into property right-of-ways, coming up with matching dollars and looking into different contractors for the different projects and phases to be completed.

“We hope this will work,” he said. “Any time we can get some water lines to quit leaking, that's a good thing.”