BYRON, Ga. — The City of Byron is getting some much needed water upgrades, according to Mayor Michael Chidester. Senator Jon Ossoff talked with folks about new funding to get the water main replaced.
Harley Willis lives on Walker Road. He says for the last two years he's had to have folks come out four times to fix the water lines.
"Sometimes it takes them three, four hours, six hours to replace it. They pump the water out and it goes all over the yard. You wake up in the middle of the night and your yard looks like an ocean," Willis said.
Willis has lived on Walker Road for close to thirty years, but just recently he's dealt with water issues.
"Just puts a hardship on everybody in the neighborhood. You get up in the morning and you have no water and in the middle of the night the water goes out. It just affects the whole neighborhood, really," Willis said.
Senator Jon Ossoff says thousands of households lose drinking water when these disruptions happen.
"The persistence of Byron residents who have demands these improvements," Ossoff said, but new funding should help. The City of Byron received more than $650,000 from the federal government to get it fixed. The water project will replace the water line, hydrants, and associated valves on Walker Road to reduce drinking water disruptions. Mayor Michael Chidester says the line they're replacing was built in the 1960s.
"It is built out of materials that is no longer approved for use as a water line. It was frequently suffering various breaks," Chidester said.
According to Ossoff's office the funding for the project will come down in the next few months.
Senator Ossoff's office requested funding from general appropriations last congress. He asked for $651,000 for the "Walker Road Drinking Water Project." Other Central Georgia projects getting funding from appropriations.
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