Crockett City Council Hears Update on Winter Storms

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

CROCKETT – The Crockett City Council met in a called meeting on Monday, March 1 highlighted by a discussion of the recent winter storms and their effect on the city.

As the meeting began, Crockett Mayor Dr. Ianthia Fisher addressed the council about the snow and ice which froze the area two weeks ago.

“I just wanted to say how proud I was of Crockett and the surrounding areas,” she said.

Dr. Fisher expressed her appreciation to all the volunteers who helped Crockett residents survive the frigid conditions. She said all one had to do was put out a request for volunteers whether it was for water, food or shelter and someone would quickly answer the call.

Councilman Ernest Jackson added, “I have to figuratively take my hat off to you, Dr. Fisher and our City Administrator John Angerstein, and every employee of our city who came out and worked in this freezing weather to take care of our citizens as best as we could.”

“We are very fortunate,” he continued, “to have a city administrator like Mr. Angerstein who during the course of his employment, has shown himself as the type of leader who stands out above some of those we have had in our history.”

As the meeting continued, Angerstein reported while the city did suffer some significant damages to equipment and machinery, most of the losses were covered by insurance.

“Other than that, we fared as a city, with our infrastructure, we came out of that with relatively few losses. On Monday morning (Feb. 15), that was when things got really serious for us as our (water) system pressure really dropped. We had no explanation for it.” 

The city administrator reported city work crews were dispatched immediately to try and find what might be causing the loss of pressure.

“Throughout, this process up to this last weekend, we continued to find water leaks,” he added.

He said the city employees went street-to-street in an attempt to find the leaks and added, “Our system just cratered. We couldn’t maintain the pressure.”

By Thursday, Angerstein said the city was able to get ahead of the curve as they were able to find and start repairing the water leaks.

Angerstein went on to say, “The city of Crockett is helping its water, sewer and utility customers who experienced significantly higher water bills which resulted from the freezing temperatures during the week of Feb. 14. These bills were at least 25 percent higher than in November 2020, December 2020 and January 2021. You (Crockett residents) are eligible for a one-time adjustment.”

The city administrator further said water disconnects had been moved from Feb. 25 to March 8. He said the week of Feb. 14 will be billed in April and added the city would be instituting a deferred payment plan for those affected by the winter storms.   

In other matters brought before the council:

• Minutes from the Feb. 16 meeting were approved.
• CEIDC Executive Director James Gentry provided an update on Phase 2 of the Small Business Relief Program.

Will Johnson may be reached via e-mail at [email protected].