Video: Bird’s Flat residents await new waterline meters
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| Bird’s Flat residents pitch in to install a waterline for their community located in Sequoyah County. (Archive photo) |
By Will Chavez
Staff Writer
MARBLE CITY, Okla. – Residents of the Bird’s Flat Community in Sequoyah County have finished laying a 3.7-mile waterline that will bring fresh water to their homes. However, they will have to wait a little longer before that water flows from their taps.
Miscommunication over whether non-Indian residents who helped lay the waterline can receive a water meter has delayed the installation of all meters for residents who volunteered.
Residents claim Cherokee Nation officials told them they could choose who got a water meter based on work hours residents donated to the waterline.
“We entered in good faith. We gave our easements. We didn’t ask for anything in writing. We took everyone at their word. I never thought the Cherokee Nation would say you don’t get a meter because you’re white,” said resident Ellen McClendon. “We just want to see that the original agreement is honored.”
Charlie Soap, CN Community Services group leader, said the agreement made with Bird’s Flat should be honored and that he wants to find a solution.
CN provided $200,000 for the project. Tribal guidelines provided to residents only state that meters would be installed once the line was complete and do not state who can and cannot receive a meter or whether a person must be Indian to receive a meter.
CN Community Development representatives attended a Marble City community meeting on June 16 to speak with Bird’s Flat residents.
Billy Hix, CN Environmental Health and Engineering director, asked how the tribe would be able to pay for Sequoyah County Water Association meters for non-Indian families and still abide by guidelines for federal dollars used by the CN.
The waterline is hooked to the county’s water system.
On past waterline projects the CN has helped with, Hix said, the water districts agreed to waive fees for families who worked a required number of hours on the project. However, there is no agreement with the SCWA to waive fees for Bird’s Flat families, he said.
Chris Sams, engineering manager for the CN Environmental Health and Engineering, said Sequoyah County made a $12,000 contribution to the CN for the project. He said there was some miscommunication on how the $12,000 was to be used, but his understanding was it was for purchasing meters.
Bird’s Flat waterline board member Kenneth White said he also understood the money would be used for the meters.
He said the tribe explained to residents that they would decide who would get a meter. He said residents should have been told by the time the line was completed that non-Indian residents could not receive a meter based on federal guidelines.
White said there are five non-Indian families that volunteered wanting to be hooked to the waterline and get a meter.
He also said some residents worked for other residents who could not work because they were elderly, handicapped or too ill.
“That was understood. There were four families or different groups of people who were either elderly or had sickness that weren’t going to be able to work. We done their part,” White said. “It was a community help water project. We all done the labor, laying pipe and covering pipe.”
The waterline resulted from a partnership between the CN and the SCWA. Residents began installing the waterline in October.
For the 21 families that stand to benefit from the waterline, having a clean and reliable water source will mean they won’t have to get their drinking and cooking water from a nearby lake.
A SCWA representative attended the June 16 meeting and said the association was set to discuss the water meter issue for Bird’s Flat on June 30.
In the meantime, Bird’s Flat residents would have to wait on clean water and for a determination on who gets a meter.
“We’re waiting on meters. The waterline is full of water, tests came back clear five or six weeks ago, but we’re still sitting here waiting for water,” White said.