Job Well Done!!! Fallston Water System Update Work!!! Fuller& Co. Construction’s Good Work Deserves Recognition!! So Does CC Water Board for Selecting Fuller!! Eye Witness Inspection report by Robert A. Williams

Editor’s Note: Some have asked me “why don’t you write good articles about county agencies?” My reply is always, “I will when I see the good work.”

So far, I have complemented the Cleveland County Animal Control for their good work in trapping and neutering 19 stray cats that were staying around my house and in the neighborhood. Dropping the cat population explosion to zero. Now I hear the so-called leadership “majority” in Cleveland County government has cancelled this program that was working so well. And causing problems at Animal Control on top of that.

I have also often mentioned, in various articles, about how the Charter School-Pinnacle Classical Academy-has been doing so very well, running complete circles around anything going on at CCS. I even stated that Pinnacle Classical Academy Board Members, former NC Senator Debbie Clary and CC Register of Deeds Betsy Harnage would make excellent CCS School Board members in turning that sorry place around. Only to hear that rumors have been started, in both the Republican and Democrat Parties, linking me somehow salacious with Debbie Clary. I almost rolled in the floor laughing. I am sure Debbie Clary has, or will, laugh too when she hears that.

Note that there are no rumors or gossip in this article. Only facts and observations that I have personally witnessed for myself. Read on!!

The Fallston Water System, which I personally witnessed being installed when I was a boy (60 years ago), with the Water Tower now in my back yard, was fed by wells that are mineral rich and now are under capacity. I always liked the taste of Fallston water. Now the decision has been made for the Cleveland County Water System to take over Fallston Water and update the water lines around and to Fallston from CC Water.

Fuller & Co. Construction out of Cherryville/Bessemer City was selected as the constructors and McGill was selected as the Engineers. And work has now gotten to the point that most of the work on the big water lines are complete and now each and every individual residential and business connection are being installed and tested. Since the water tower is in my back yard and my tap is installed on the main line, I have been a witness to most of this work. Besides some minor traffic inconveniences, I have been totally happy with this work.

Because the Fallston Water Tower is in my backyard and all the big lines are attached to the water tower and, because those lines are buried under the road into Fallston Elementary School are in front of my house, I have been a personal and continuous witness to much of the major work. I have had many occasions to walk by the pipe, valve and parts storage area near the water tank and have taken it upon myself to look them over well. As I do when I go to School Board, Commissioner and Cleveland Community College Board meetings. Also, as I am an Engineering Graduate from NC State who has worked on major nuclear construction projects around the USA, I am familiar with underground waterlines and overall construction methods and work. I know what is needed to do a good job and I know good engineering, materials, planning scheduling and workmanship when I see it.

This very week, the Fallston water system work came to me personally. MY connection to the water system was the purpose of the work. Everything was up front and personal.

First of all, my house is approaching or close to 100 years old. I have beautiful oak floors of a quality you cannot buy anymore. High ceilings, real plaster walls, etc. The original wiring was “knob and tube” which was professionally updated to a modern electrical system years ago.

The original water system was a well, probably by bucket, and is still located on my back porch, although I replaced the pump and use the wells water for watering flowers, grass, garden spots, etc. As well as fitting a custom-made heat exchanger where I will use the cold well water some day for a very high efficiency heat pump.

Anyway, around 60 years ago when the Fallston Water System was planned and installed, this house was hooked up, apparently with a galvanized pipe system that was previously installed to the well on the back porch. But when the house underwent a major remodeling about 30 years ago a copper piping and modern plumbing system was installed. And somewhere the copper piping system was connected to the old water meter location coming from a different and unknown direction. And paved over with concrete.

So, when the Fuller and Co. Construction Company showed up to install the tap for my new water meter, we had some interesting issues.

First, the location of the existing water meter was directly in line with the original installation that went straight to my back porch. Some shovel work located the old galvanized pipe that had been abandoned in place. But I knew that pipe was dry and the present copper line was somewhere else.

I had my son go into the basement, access the crawl space and follow the inside water line to where it entered, under the house foundation. My son was able to follow the copper line installation from hard copper to soft underground copper and determined the direction of the line to the meter. The Fuller folks were very helpful and totally cooperated during all this research work. An exploratory hole was dug by hand and the copper line was found.

The Fuller folks located and adjusted the proper location for my new meter connection in such a way that my cost to hook up to my new meter was ZERO. I was proud of that and appreciated all their cooperation and effort. Then the Fuller folks dug up the previously installed new main pipe to the water tower, now on the other side of School Road and prepared to use an amazing device that tunneled under the school’s road and my concrete parking space. It was here that I really appreciated just how they worked as an efficient team.

When the large new feeder pipe to the water tower was dug up, the Caterpillar tracked front end loader operator displayed an amazing coordination with the equipment controls. When the initial digging allowed big and aggressive digging, that is what he machine operator did. When the hole got close to the buried pipe, he took very small scoops until the pipe was uncovered. All without a word spoken. I dare say that not shovel full of dirt was dug by hand if it could be dug by the machine. And not one time did I see the machine dig any dirt when it endangered the existing piping. The amazing part was the machine operator was often digging in the blind and his spotter was giving him hand signals to guide the loader bucket. Fast and efficient. The dirt was loaded into another large front-end loader bucket for reuse when the hole was filled. Nobody had to send for the large equipment, it was there when needed without a word spoken by anybody. Everybody knew the plan and didn’t need further instructions.

Then the old original pipe had to be located since it was between the new large pipe and my house. It was still pressurized and any misstep with the front-end loader had the possibility of draining the entire water tank of many tens of thousands of gallons of water. Care was needed and care was taken. Everybody knew that and no questions or communications were needed. Nothing was damaged, therefore nothing had to be fixed.

In the end, my new water tap was made up to the new 12-inch line, a new soft copper feeder line was installed from the new 12-inch pipe, under the school’s road and my concrete to the new meter base piping. The line was purged and made ready for the final meter installation and changeover from the old system piping to the new system piping. All done in about one long morning.

All this major construction work on the roads into Fallston Elementary School was done during school schedule breaks. No interference or extra traffic jams at any time. Good work done by good workers with no problems due to miscalculations. One exception I heard about was when a pipe locator marking was 8 ft off, then they had a problem that required fixing. Customer satisfaction was pushed by the Fuller folks and I am 2,000% satisfied with the work that was done at my house. Teamwork and efficiency leads to cost savings and competitive prices. Not one time did I see a Fuller employee leaning on a shovel, like State workers are infamous for.

There ae lessons here. The high level of performance, quality control, teamwork, adherence to schedule, quality of materials and efficiency exhibited by Fuller Construction should be noted and these folks hired when additional construction work is needed. Brad Cornwell, Manager of the CC Water System should be awarded a bonus for finding and using Fuller Construction for this work. Fuller Construction should be considered for all county work in the future. I am tired of the $Millions in cost over-runs in projects like the LeGrand Center, Shelby Middle School, the new Health Department building and the new North Shelby School project. (Probably $20 million+ altogether was wasted on those projects alone.) Fuller should be hired for the new Advanced Manufacturing Center to be built at Cleveland Community College and anything else the county plans to build. Like a new Courthouse, a new Jail, a new DSS and new auditoriums at Burns and Crest. Also, the $750,000 pipe project at the Kings Mountain High School Football project that CCS is giving away to the David Brinkley crowd to fix a deteriorated drain under the KMHS football field.

Folks, I know good work when I see it. Lots of good work from the Fuller Construction people and the County Water system. Every so-called “leader” in Cleveland County Government should be taking notice of the good work on the Fallston Water System by Fuller Construction and include Fuller in all construction Requests for Proposals. And hire Fuller. That is what smart “leaders” would do. Just like Brad Cornwell.

When you need top notch construction, Call Fuller Construction. You will be glad you did.

There are also political lessons to be learned here. Only in a capitalistic private-enterprise based economy are there incentives for the hard work, efficiency and cost savings that was clearly demonstrated by the Fuller Construction Company. If this work had been performed by a socialist based government bureaucratic enterprise (like CCS), they would not give a whit about customer satisfaction, tied up school traffic jams or cost over-runs. The proof of that is go to School Board meetings and hear the board member say, cost does not matter. Hey, that is why the County’s finances are on the verge of bankruptcy. And a sales tax increase is planned as soon as possible.

Be sure to vote (X) AGAINST the $2 million tax increase on the November 5th, 2019 Ballot. Give the tax and spend all Republican commissioners and CCS and CCC the message. NO SALES TAX INCREASES ALLOWED!!! Stop the waste and corruption! Live within our means!! Show the Commissioners, CCS and CCC who the boss is. Note that Pinnacle Classical Academy just built a new school facility without the $Millions in cost over-runs like CCS and CCC. How? By Debbie Clary, Betsy Harnage and others using good and efficient construction contractors just like Fuller Construction. And eliminating waste and corruption. Vote against the tax increase, none of the $2 million revenue increase will go to benefit of Pinnacle Classical Academy or Fallston Water. Or anybody else that is not an Insider Good-Ole-Boy!!!