When we moved to Kentucky, the man who built our home, Herb Archer, was a City Commissioner in Sadieville. He was responsible for public works. He was at a point where he didn't feel he could serve on the City Commission and, knowing Claude came to their meetings as a citizen and seemed interested, approached Claude to see if he might be interested in possibly finished his term. Claude said he would be interested.
The end result was that Herb resigned and the commission voted Claude in to complete Herb's term. Claude took over Herb's area of responsiblity which included the sewer project.
Sadieville had an old 'package plant' for their sewer plant. The project was to put new sewer lines in Sadieville, get rid of all the old septic tank systems at homes and connect them to the new sewer lines, and have all this connect to Georgetown's water treatment system. The end result is Sadieville would no longer be in the sewer business.
The target completion date was several years ago. These things hit snags with people, property, money needs, weather, legal issues, etc., etc., etc. The plan to accomplish all of this was divided into three phases with Eagle Bend (the subdivision we live in) being the third phase and, if funds didn't last, it would not be done. Amazingly we are at phase three and, through careful management, we will compete all the project including Phase 3 in Eagle Bend.
Eagle Bend is the newest homes and they each have a septic system that had lines connecting to a main line to the pumping station near the entry to Eagle Bend. In the course of planning they found this main line to the pumping station was not large enough to carry what it needed to. What they had to do in Phase 3 is to replace the smaller main line pipe with a larger one and also connect the piping from the house to the main sewer line and eliminate the septic tanks.
Thursday, April 12th they came and located the septic tank and dug a hole in the yard around the pipe that comes to the surface. They did this in all 15 homes in Eagle Bend.
Tuesday, April 24th they were back again to destroy the septic tank, connect the new pipe and fill in that hole. Fortunately I was home because I really wanted to watch this process and get some pictures of it. Claude was not home and I wanted him to be able to watch it. I positioned myself on the deck outside the living room for the morning shooting of still pictures and taking video. The guys just chuckle at me but they don't seem to mind being in my pictures.
I was reminded as I watched these guys work of the work done on the sycamore tree last year when they topped it and cut off branches that might rest on the power lines in an ice storm. I noted then it was like watching a ballet that was perfectly choreographed. This process was much the same in my view. There were three men and they each knew the part they were to play and exactly what to do to assist the others. Very few words transpired, a few hand movements and a few words, but for the most part it was just smoothly accomplished.
They first thing was to completely remove the dirt and grass from the entire surface area of the septic tank. It turned out that tank was a lot larger than I had imagined.
Once the top was exposed, they used the claw on the backhoe to pound and break up the concrete top. The broken pieces of concrete were pushed into the bottom of the septic tank. The piping was replaced with a new piece to extend to the surface upon completion of our link to the sewer. Then a bulldozer came several times with its shovel full of gravel to fill in the septic tank and the hole before placing the dirt back on top.
Then, when the hole was as full of gravel as needed, the dirt was carefully shoved into place and pounded down with the backhoe.
I was amazed at the number of bull dozer loads of gravel it took to fill that hole. The day before they did my next door neighbors and they brought all the gravel to fill their septic tank and hole in a wheel barrow down their hill in multiple trips. I remembered distinctly looking out my dining room window and watching the youngest of the group resting before lifting a wheel barrow load of gravel to push it down the hill. I asked the guys how many wheel barrow loads it took to fill one of those septic tanks and the hole they made. They gave me a number between 40 and 50. Goodness. That made the 5 or 6 bulldozer loads they used on my home a lot easier for them.
The surface was raked so that it was smooth and even and as much grass as possible was left in place.
I have so much video of this process. I'm hoping Hayden gets a kick out of watching this heavy equipment come off our empty lot into the back yard and then work their magic.
I made an observation as I watched these guys working so well together. There were two middle aged guys and they drove and ran the heavy equipment. Then there was a younger fella, probably in his early 20's, working with these guys. Clearly he was the grunt laborer of the group. Even though that was his job it was clear his role was not looked down on by the older two guys. And, just as clearly he understood he needed to work with the guys to learn this trade. I felt a great deal of admiration and respect for this working arrangement. Everyone's role was needed and appreciated. I was happy to see a young person knowing that they needed to learn from the ground up (no pun intended) and happy to do that with men he respected and seemed to enjoy working with. It was just a good lesson in how life should operate.
Now the guys have started the trench from the pumping station along the back of our yards on the creek side. When that pipe is laid and in working position, the project will be finished.
The next step is to turn our system over to Georgetown and Sadieville will be out of the sewer business completely. And...most importantly...my hubby will be a very happy man.
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