Supervisors provide Fairmead a loan for well repairs

Fairmead, a community a few miles outside of Chowchilla, was granted an emergency loan by the Madera County Board of Supervisors last month.

In January Fairmead’s only water well failed and required multiple repairs to the structure’s casing, motor and pump. The well’s failure also caused water to be hauled into the district. There are 1,502 people in Fairmead and the well has more than 260 connections.

The unforeseen emergency caused the depletion of funding in Fairmead’s improvement account, thus causing the fund to go into debt. The supervisors agreed to provide an 18-month loan of $450,000 from the Department of Engineering and General Services fund.

“The glitch that we have with using that (DEGS) account is it is an interest-bearing account. It would cost, we estimate, $1,800 to have the $450,000 loan,” said Johannes Hoevertsz, Madera County public works director. “I think we should probably use DEGS because it’s outside of the general fund operations that your CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) needs to run the county. At the end of the project we’re going to have a well working district with meters and all the connections.”

Fairmead has been declared a disadvantaged community by the state and is scheduled to receive a $453,000 grant for its improvement fund, which will be used to reimburse the county for its loan. However, the state grant does not allow for interest payments.

District 2 Supervisor David Rogers said he supports the loan

“We’re getting 100 percent reimbursed. This is an emergency situation. Hopefully we can make their water system whole,” Rogers said.

District 4 Supervisor Max Rodriguez agreed with Rogers.

“$1,800 is not even worth talking about,” Rodriquez said. “We’re talking about people out there that need the water and we should go ahead and do it. We have to put them in a good situation to live a civilized life.”

Besides approving the loan, the supervisors directed county staff to formalize a process and criteria for such loans to be issued in the future.

This story was originally published August 5, 2015 at 11:35 AM with the headline "Supervisors provide Fairmead a loan for well repairs."