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ELKINS - The City of Elkins will come before the Randolph County Commission for a second time Thursday to seek funding help with water issues in the town of Whitmer.
In November 2022, the Whitmer Water Association reached out to the Public Service Commission in hopes of being considered a distressed and failing utility. At that time the WWA was in dire financial condition and had no board members or employees.
The PSC looked at the problem and designated the City of Elkins to take it over. During the next eight months, Elkins oversaw the hiring of an engineer and helped transform the WWA into a legal entity, which gave it the capability to apply for emergency funding.
Representatives from the City of Elkins will speak at this week's commission meeting on Thursday, asking again for help.
The City of Elkins' work at the WWA has helped the situation, but new equipment is needed to bring everything back up to 100 percent working capacity. The cost to do so is in the neighborhood of $123,000.
During a July commission meeting, the City of Elkins reached out with a funding request to the RCC and Commissioner Cris Siler, who has attempted to help with the problem in Whitmer for some time, told city representatives to see what kind of help they could get from the state and then come back.
"I'd like to see what the state tells you and then we can see what we can help you with," Siler told City of Elkins representatives during the July meeting. "We want to help any way that we can, so after you hear from them we will go from there."
The WWA has been operating with one filter at its plant instead of two, and other items that need replaced or fixed at the facility include its flow meters, SCADA system, chemical pumps and lab analyzers.
At the July meeting, representatives from the City told the commission that it had already paid out close to $20,000 from city funds since taking over the WWC.
Thursday's meeting is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at the James F. Cain Courthouse Annex.