Well On Its Way To Construction. Harper Well Drilling will soon begin drilling Well No. 3 in Leasburg. Leasburg trustees held a public hearing last Tuesday on acquiring grant funds for a new standpipe. A new one is essential for Leasburg’s new well system. If Leasburg can secure a Community Development Block Grant and obtain a Small Borrowers Loan, the new standpipe would be constructed sometime next year.

By Ryan Storz
Leasburg’s biggest problem is finally on the way to getting solved.
Trustees have been informed that Harper Well Drilling is close to being able to start construction on Well No. 3 in mid-to-late August or early September.
It would bring to a close what has been a long drawn-out process in getting a much-needed well to the Leasburg Village.
Harper will have 10 days to ready the project and 120 to finish, meaning the new system could be up and running by late December or early January.
Trustees held a public hearing on acquiring a standpipe to go with the new well last Tuesday night. Only one person reportedly showed up to the hearing.
Leasburg will apply for a Community Development Block Grant from the state, which will cover over $106,000 for the $132,000 project.
The village will borrow the other $25,000 from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources through a Small Borrowers Loan.
A new standpipe is essential to the new well system, but the existing standpipe will be able to function until a new one can be installed.
The new standpipe would not be constructed until after the new well has been put in. Construction of the standpipe will have to be put up for a completely new bid.
Construction on the well system has been full of false starts. A final report was completed on the project by Cochran Engineering last June. That report said that Well No. 3 will produce 100 gallons per minute. The well would be constructed away from the temporary well so they do not influence each other.
Trustees were told in September of last year that construction would be stalled until April at the earliest, since the planning and designing from Cochran was not yet completed. Trustees were under the impression that construction could not begin until 120 days after all the paperwork had been submitted.
This caused frustration amongst board members, who were not able to solicit bids until everything had been finalized on Cochran’s end.
Chris Boone, who has overseen the project for Cochran, told trustees two weeks later that the information they had received was wrong, and construction could start as conceivably as the beginning of 2010.
Leasburg finally received funding for the project in November from the USDA. Most of 2010 has been spent on bids and paperwork.
Trustees have also been forced to make hard decisions along the way. Two rate increases were put into place this past January and July.