A few weeks ago, only a couple of homeowners had been helped by the $250,000 that Liberty Utilities dropped off with the United Way of Southeast Arkansas. The United Way is not connected with the water company’s effort to help people whose pipes burst during the big chill in February; the agency is merely writing checks out of the money that Liberty donated.
But since then, Jason Duren, a United Way executive, reports that the United Way has written checks totaling close to $36,000, which has repaired leaky pipe problems at almost 100 homes. Almost 100 is a nice improvement over almost zero.
At one point, some 360 homes were disconnected from water service because of burst and leaking pipes. That happened when the temperature stayed below freezing for days on end, dipping to zero degrees at one time.
The utility was roundly criticized for not taking better care of the infrastructure of the city’s water system. One of the pump stations was not working, and because there were so many leaks, many of which had nothing to do with the cold weather, residents and big institutions, like UAPB, Jefferson Regional Medical Center and Saracen Casino Resort, were seriously sidelined or had to close because of the very low water pressure. Losing functionality at the hospital was seriously troubling as would-be patients had to be shuttled off to other medical centers.
In the wake of that criticism, the utility ponied up a quarter of a million dollars, which was earmarked for helping people with their broken pipes, although one of the biggest hurdles was to find enough plumbers to fix the problems.
Last week, the water company also directed the United Way to hand over $50,000 to Neighbor to Neighbor, a Pine Bluff food pantry, to be used to help that agency’s clients with their own water bills, which is something the agency already does.
In the meantime, the state Attorney General’s office and the state Public Service Commission are looking into Liberty’s operation in Pine Bluff. We look forward to that assessment because, while the check passings to United Way and Neighbor to Neighbor do show a good-faith effort to right some of the problems, the bottom line here is that the entire city deserves a water service that can be counted on, no matter the weather.