• Lake Waccamaw is exploring feasibility of future tie-in.

By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

It has been years in the making but efforts to get sewer infrastructure are paying off for Bolton.

Sen. R.C. Soles Jr. and Rep. Dewey Hill announced Wednesday that Bolton was awarded a $200,000 grant from the N.C. Rural Center for the town’s portion of a joint water-sewer project.

The grant will cover project costs that exceeded original estimates and will allow the sewer connection from Bolton to Whiteville to move forward. The project budget is roughly $5 million and is funded primarily with Clean Water Management Trust Fund grants.

“I appreciate the opportunity to work with the people in this community to improve their quality of life with a good, clean source of water and an environmentally friendly system of disposal,” Soles said.

“The eastern part of the county is more undeveloped and really needs an environmentally friendly sewer system to help that area, for residential and economic development. R.C. and I worked on getting money to provide that,” Hill said.

“Any town that expects to grow needs sewer infrastructure,” Bolton Mayor Frank Wilson said last year about of two Clean Water Management Trust Fund grants the town received, adding that sewer service would boost property values and the tax base.

Plans call for Bolton’s sewage to be pumped through lines along Sam Potts Highway to the Whiteville sewer plant for treatment. The Whiteville plant is undergoing renovations and scheduled for completion by Dec. 2008.

Bolton’s sewer system will serve 237 customers and take approximately a year to complete. Construction will likely begin in October of this year, said Tyndal Lewis, vice president with McDavid and Associates.

The Goldsboro firm is overseeing the project that was recently bid out with Frank Horne Construction being awarded the contract.

“Whiteville has been very gracious to work with,” Lewis said.

Leaders from Whiteville, Lake Waccamaw and Bolton will meet with state agency officials and local legislators today (Thursday) to explore the feasibility of additional funding for increasing the size of the line from eight to 12 inches.

The larger line would enable Lake Waccamaw to tie into the system.

“The main purpose in enlarging the line is to accommodate future growth and development,” Lake Waccamaw Mayor Ivan Wilson said.

He said with the new state port and future plans for Interstate 74 coming through Bolton the potential for economic development is big.

“The whole corridor from Bolton to Chadbourn is going to be prime for development,” Ivan Wilson said.

“Secondly, we would have an option for the lake if an agreement were drafted that was favorable for the town to tie into Whiteville’s system.”

Ivan Wilson said he anticipates Lake Waccamaw will grow significantly in the future and if the town chose to tie into the system it may not send 100 percent of its sewage to the Whiteville plant, but a portion.

‘The cost of constructing a sewer plant is not cheap anymore,” Lake Waccamaw Town Manager Darren Currie said.

“That stuff is pretty expensive.”

Currie said an enlarged line that the town could tie into is “an alternate” that would also give the town time to consider future plans.

Whiteville City Manager Josh Ray agrees that with the new state port planned near Southport, sewer infrastructure could attract more industry to Columbus County.

The international port is expected to be a major economic driver in North Carolina and rival ports in Charleston, S.C. and Hampton Roads, Va.