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.