Day two of no water for Wells Island Rd.
By: Kimberly Rusley
Updated: December 11, 2012
It's day two of no water
for people in the Wells Island neighborhood of north Caddo Parish.
The water is off because
the company they make payments to, hasn't been paying Shreveport's water
department.
James Smiley lives off of Wells Island
Road, and he has no water.
He has to fill up two five gallon
containers of water everyday just to make it.
"It's not fun at all," says
Smiley.
Analytical Logging has been reselling
water from the city of Shreveport to the small neighborhood.
The company hasn't paid the bill in 20
months, so the city has shut the water off.
Mr. Smiley says the problem needs to
be fixed now.
"Run a new line or whatever
they've got to do," says Mr. Smiley. "I want my water back. I'm not alone
everybody down here does."
At the city council work session on
Monday, angry neighbors gave an ear full to city officials.
Shreveport Chief Administrative
Officer Dale Sibley said that in his
opinion it's illegal for analytical to resell the city's water.
Right now the city has no plans to
turn the water back on.
Some people at the meeting got so
upset, they had to be escorted out.
Companies that are without water
because of Analytical say they're building a well now.
People who live here say they don't
have thousands to spend on building a well, and they don't know what they're
going to do.
Danny Cotten owns a business right
behind Analytical, and he says this isn't the first time he's had a problem
with the company.
"We've had issues quite a bit
with Analytical paying our services for water and electricity, which you know
water has been cut on and off over the last several years and now we're facing
this," says Cotton.
He's working on getting everyone in
the neighborhood to fight for access to city water.
NBC 6 tried to reach out to Analytical
again today, but our calls were unanswered, and the gates to the company's
front doors were locked.
Until water is restored, Mr. Smiley has
a message for the company, the city and the parish.
"Just get their act together,"
says Smiley. "Do what they got to do to resolve this problem."
