Pioneer awaits go ahead to bid its project

A consultant attempted to assure the chairman of the board at the Pioneer Rural Water District that Pioneer will get its long-awaited authority to bid its treatment plant project within the next three months.  Donald Phillips of Design South Professionals responded yesterday to a question from Barry Stevenson, chairman of the Pioneer board.  In a progress report, Phillips noted six items still to be taken care of before Pioneer can send the project to contractors for their estimates.  One of the to-do items is to complete interim financing arrangements with a lending bank.  Phillips described other roadblocks, including the historic flooding that occurred last year in the Columbia area and parts of the low state.  Plans, specifications and other documents related to the treatment plant to be built at Oconee’s Golden Corner Commerce Park were to have been reviewed by the state engineer for USDA’s Rural Development office in South Carolina have instead been sent to the North Carolina office because the South Carolina office is tied up with projects to repair flood damage.