The town of Ethel was finally able to life a boil water warning Tuesday after flushing the system twice, following two separate incidents over the holidays.The day after Christmas, the town discovered that a service head at the water tower had been blown on the Entergy side, causing the pump to fail. Water was out briefly as the town switched over to the old water tower to provide service while a fix was made, according to Mayor Gwen Sims.A week later, after switching back to the repaired main water tower, the computer board on that system went down, causing a second outage.With the resulting losses of water pressure, iron oxide has at times colored the water rusty, and chlorine was added to clear and flush the system. The chlorine levels have been too high for the water to be appropriate for drinking, according to Sims.“We’ve been on top of it. It is unusual for the system to go down twice like that,” she said, “but we’re still under a boil water notice until we get clearance from the state.”Following the second outage, new water samples had to be drawn and evaluated before the order could be lifted.Plaque plannedJoe Lewis Greer was a downtown Ethel fixture until he was moved into a nursing home several years ago, according to Sims. Greer died in November, and the town has ordered a plaque that will be installed near one of the park benches where he would sit to talk with passersby. A dedication will be planned once the plaque arrives near the end of January.Drake Street to be pavedThe town of Ethel has saved between $175,000 and $200,000 from state road and bridge and road maintenance funds . It planes to repave the section of Drake Street from Hannah to Love streets using those funds this summer.Drake Street will not simply be resurfaced due to its current condition.“We’ve got to rebuild the base on it,” said Sims.
