ST. MARTIN PARISH — Construction is now underway on a new water well in the village of Parks, a project aimed at improving the community’s water system and providing a backup source if issues arise with existing infrastructure.
The project has been a goal of Parks Mayor Kevin Kately since he first took office in 2015. Kately said the additional well will strengthen the village’s water system by improving pressure and allowing the town to better maintain water quality.
“We have a lot of flush valves, automatic flush valves that we can’t utilize because we don’t want our pressure to go any lower. But with that new well, it’s going to pump a lot of water at a great force, and we’re going to be able to put more automatic flushers on there, which is going to allow us to keep the water clean as much as possible,” Kately said.
Automatic flush valves help push water through distribution lines to prevent stagnation and maintain cleanliness within the system. Kately said the new well will provide an important backup if problems occur with the village’s main water system.
“If our tower goes down or our water system goes down, we have a plan B now,” Kately said.“If anything happens to our water tower, we can come right here and produce almost the same amount of water that we was producing at our water plant,” Kately added.
Residents who have lived in Parks for decades say the project has been a long time coming.
“I have never known us to get a new one, so I'm pretty sure everyone's going to be excited,” said Andrea Dugas, a longtime Parks resident.
“Yeah, it's been a long time coming, because ever since we been living, we had the same system for a long time,” said Denise George, who has also lived in the village her entire life.
For people living on the outskirts of Parks, the well could also mean expanded access to the village’s water system. Vanessa Smith, who lives in the Cypress Island area just outside the village limits, currently relies on a personal well for her water supply. She said maintaining that system can be difficult and hopes the new well will eventually allow the village to extend its water lines further into nearby areas.
“I don't always want well water. I mean, I want to have the option to have either, or I have a small farm so I could use well water for the farm, but I could use Parks' city water for the home instead,” Smith said.
“When I first moved here, I came to Parks to see about the water system— to see why we couldn’t have water. It was just a thing about running the lines, and now with this new well system, they’ll be able to run the line a little bit further than what they are right now,” Smith added.
Kately said the well is estimated to be complete in roughly six months, weather permitting.
