Contractor puzzling over new pipe requirement 6/6/2014

Published 12:00 am Friday, June 6, 2014

By John Howell

Batesville contractor Lawrence Hoskins stood before city officials Tuesday to “plead his case,” he said, after he was told that he would be required to pay $9,500 to extend a six-inch water line 450 feet to reach a building where he plans to open an elderly day care.

Hoskins recited a litany of mostly unanticipated expenses totaling $60,000, including $42,000 to install a sprinkler system, that he had encountered since he purchased the old Panco building to convert into an elderly day care.

Then, Hoskins continued, he learned from a newspaper story last week that he would be required to pay for the six-inch water line that would provide sufficient sprinkler system pressure from a line 450 feet from his property line.

“Now, I’ve got the sprinkler system 95 percent finished,” he said. “I need some help.”

A give-and-take, question, answer and comment session among Hoskins and city officials continued for about 10 minutes.

“What worries me is it went so far along before this came up,” said Alderman Bill Dugger. “I wouldn’t go and spend very much money … if you weren’t sure that you could get the water.”

However, Hoskins said that he had relied on information provided by the city that its six-inch line was available at the edge of his property.

“Mike (Water and Sewer Superintendent Mike Ross) thought it was a (six-inch) water line there; that’s all I had to go on,” Hoskins said.

“So Lawrence, you’re saying that you didn’t know about the line when you paid your deposit? Alderman Ted Stewart asked.

“All I went on was what the city told me,” Hoskins said. “I was told that from the beginning.”

“It showed on the map it was a six-inch line running up there, but when we dug down, it wasn’t … but a two-incher,” Ross said.

“You relied on the information from the city that it was a six-inch line, and you spent the money in advance with that six-inch line in mind?” Alderman Eddie Nabors asked.

“Yessir; I’m not the type to try to buck the system at all,” Hoskins said. “I just came here to plead my case.

“I think that I would have been out of my place if they had showed me on the map that there was a six-inch line, and I’d have said, ‘Show it to me,’” Hoskins continued. 

Mayor Jerry Autrey told Hoskins that the city officials would consider the matter and “get back” to him.