About Lilly Grove Water Supply

A LITTLE ABOUT OUR HISTORY

Several of our customers have asked about the history of Lilly Grove SUD. So, we did a little research and came up with the following information.

Lilly Grove Water Supply was formed in the early 1960s by a group of concerned citizens as a rural water cooperative. They sold memberships for $50 each connection and drilled the first well, which is still located adjacent to Lilly Grove Baptist Church. The well is no longer in service, and has been plugged. The first well at the church including pumps, storage tanks, and all infrastructure cost $35,000. That plant today would cost around $350,000.

Several of these organizers were very active in the community and included Hollis Weatherly, Sam Sitton, and Earl Gene Partin , who were the first officers of the Corporation. Hollis Weatherly still stops by our office regularly to keep us on our toes. I suspect he should be considered the Father of Lilly Grove Water.

The Nat area was added in 1973 with several wells being drilled before useable water was found. A large expansion project was undertaken in 1983 with 33 miles of pipeline added and the standpipe tank behind Western Hills being constructed. Another well was drilled at Nat about 1995. Two small wells were drilled in 1996 adjacent to the standpipe on Martin Road. These wells did not produce large quantities of water, but the water quality was outstanding and introduced us to the advantages of finding water from the Wilcox aquifer. We drilled the well on Old Tyler Road in 2000 and were again successful in finding the Wilcox aquifer. This well did produce the amount of water we wanted and the quality was again outstanding. By drilling these three wells adjacent to existing storage facilities we saved the cost of building new infrastructure to deliver the water. This saved us a considerable amount of money.

In 2005-2006 we constructed elevated storage tanks at Western Hills and Nat and drilled another well behind Western Hills. This well is capable of producing very large quantities of water.

The system suffered thru very hard times in the 1970s and 1980s, due to a lack of management. The water delivered was red with iron and stained everything it touched. By 1987 the system was close to bankruptcy in both finances and facilities. The infrastructure was in a state of neglect and there was no money to fund the needed maintenance. In 1987 we saw a complete turnover in the Board of Directors, and the new Directors vowed to operate the system in a strict businesslike manner. The financial situation started to improve immediately and maintenance projects followed which slowly improved the reliability and dependability of the system. We gradually saw the end of the red water and the stained clothes and other associated problems.

We opened our first public business office in 1992, and hired our first Business Manager in 1995. In 2000 we converted to a Utility District to improve our access to lower interest rates to fund our expansions. We have been blessed with very good Directors over the past twenty years who were interested in both the financial and physical aspects of the business. As a result Lilly Grove Water is in great financial condition, and our system reliability has never been better.

All of our expansion projects are now complete, and we're confident Lilly Grove Water can be the best rural water supply utility in Nacogdoches County and will rival the best in East Texas. Our customers deserve the best and your Directors, System Manager, Field Operators expect to deliver just that, the best water in rural East Texas.