Good news in hard times

PABLO — Much of the wait is over this month for towns in line to see if local projects will be awarded chunks of the federal government’s stimulus package money, and for places like Pablo, the news has come at a time when the town needs more than ever to recover and reinvest.

Federal grant applications were filed months before the news fell on the people of Pablo that 87 people would be out of jobs when the Plum Creek sawmill closes in late May, making the blow of the hard economy even sharper.

But the Pablo Water and Sewer District learned last week that it has been awarded a $750,000 water system update grant, which will be used to repair the 40-year-old pipe system on Seventh Avenue.

Now, the staff and five-member water board are working hard to make sure the money works to relieve for the community.

“We’re hoping to keep a lot of money in Lake County,” water district office manager Leslie Arneson said.

Bidding for the project is open now and the staff is hoping to begin construction on June 1. Arneson said a condition of the grant was that all products used in the project are American made.

The current pipe system implemented in 1973 is made of thin water pipes laying on sharp bedrock, making a ruptured pipe a all-too regular occurrence.

“Most of the time it’s 3 o-clock in the morning and colder than heck,” operator Patrick Sorrell said.

It has Sorrell’s job to solve the problem, when water starts gushing. No matter what time of day the main breaks, he and laborer Luke Taylor get out the back hoe and take care of it.

They’ve see plenty of leaks in the past several years, and now will oversee the construction of the new system, which will be made with tougher pipes that rest of a bed of sand.

Anyway you look at it, it’s money working for the town, Sorrell said.

“There’s a lot of work being done in Pablo,” he said. “We’re really excited to get the money.

“We appreciate the U.S. government and that they’re helping out the individuals and the economy at the same time.”

Sorrell said when the project is underway, residents shouldn’t experience any major interruptions in water service.

 Even with the mill’s closure, the area is growing and that will be the focus of the work. Salish Kootenai College and S and K housing will all benefit and be better able to continue growth with the upgrades, water board president Lee.

“We’re getting application on a regular basis wanting to do developments in Pablo and in order to maintain what we have we need to do upgrades,” Lee said.

Just more than $4 million of the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment act (given through state revolving fund grant program) will be forgiven principle. The rest will be paid back as a low-interest loan, Arneson said.

The $2.6 million waste water treatment plant that sits next to the Pablo Water and Sewer District office was completed last September  to meet the growing need for more water storage and fire flow, Arneson said.

When the Seventh Avenue portion is finished, Arneson said they will use what money is left to start of the renovation the Third Avenue System. If there is still money after this second phase, the Montana Avenue system will be done.

Next on the list of improvements is to update or replace the water tower. The office will apply for grants to cover those costs in the coming years, she said.

Town teams up to fix up ballfield

Just down the road from the mill that will soon close and be quiet for good, Luke Taylor and Patrick Sorrell are working to reawaken a piece of Pablo.

The pair have been volunteering their time and labor to the town’s two-field complex, which was overrun by weeds and unusable. The Pablo Water and Sewer District board of directors came up with the idea, Sorrell said. He and Sorrell have been working on the complex that sits south of the Pablo Elementary School for several weeks.

Members Frank Arlint, Ron Erickson, Walt Gainan, Dan Payne and president Mike Lee have been major supporters of community projects like this, Sorrell said.

“As a community, we’d like to see it as not a knap weed field,” Sorrell said. “And I’m not kidding, it was knee high knapweed.”

Lake County Weed donated the weed killer that Taylor and Sorrell were applying last week. The water district office will continue to bring a mower down and keep grass low.

The Ronan/Pablo baseball and softball associations used the field in the past, but games moved completely to Ronan several seasons ago. Bleachers were moved to Ronan too, but a the concession stand was left deserted.

Lifetime resident Sorrell, who “loved the field as a kid,” hopes it inspires other towns people to make further improvements. Since just the first mowing, Sorrell said neighbors to the field have seen kids on the diamonds. Now, they need to bring back the bleachers, open the concession stand and have regular little league games there.

The Ronan/Pablo Softball Association alone has 100 girls in its program, organizer Dale Sassaman said. This is the first year the softball and baseball associations have been completely separate, he said. The league has several 10-U, 12-U and 14-U teams.

The Ronan/Pablo Summer Rec program runs the baseball side of the league.

Sassaman said no official softball games will be played on the Pablo fields this year, but Sorrell is going to keep bringing the mower back. Prove it’s a place where there’s not always bad news.

“It’s be nice to have something in Pablo stay nice,” Sorrell said.