BATESBURG-LEESVILLE, S.C. — Batesburg-Leesville has been dealing with flooding issues for the past few weeks, but a new utilities director has some ideas to help the Lexington County town.
Matt DeWitt is new to Batesburg-Leesville town leadership and he tells News19 he's ready to make a difference.
"The amount of projects and the amount of excitement that the residents have around here about the growth that's taking place and the potential in Batesburg-Leesville is what really excited me about the opportunity," DeWitt said.
Town leaders explain he was hired around the time the city experienced water main breaks. And before he got started, the city got flooded at the end of last month by a freak rainstorm.
Right now, he's got a packed agenda in addition to a multi-million dollar water project about to go out for bid. The town just completed upgrades to its wastewater treatment plant, it currently has a liquid chemical feed project its working on, as well as an infiltration and inflow improvement project.
But beyond this, the town tells News19 they need to do a valve replacement study to fix bigger problems.
"The problem is, these valves are very old and a lot of them will not isolate and shut off completely anymore. Like when we had the big 8-inch water line break under Highway 1 a few weeks ago, we were unable to isolate the water to be able to cut it off for them to make the repair, and that leads to a whole host of problems," Ted Luckadoo, town manager said.
Recent flooding and water main breaks have pushed these water infrastructure projects and improvements to top of mind.
But with new leadership, and new ideas, Batesburg Leesville's town representatives explain they are ready for what's to come.
According to the town manager, he'll be meeting with his new utilities director in the coming days to start going over specific projects they have on the table.