“Name that Year” is designed to put your knowledge of Tracy and its newsmakers of the past to the test. Each week, we will publish a news item that ran in a past edition — maybe it was a major event, or a story about a Tracy resident — it’s up to you to determine in what year that particular news item hit the pages of the paper:
• THE CITY OF GARVIN HAS COMPLETED ITS SWITCH TO THE RURAL WATER SYSTEM. Ninety meters were installed, with 65 on the line at the present time. Accordmg to Mayor Jim Julien, everyone who now has rural water is very glad they are hooked up.
“Taste is no problem to get used to, we sure like it.” He reported there were only two people in the town who didn’t hook up to the water. The better water was needed in the area for a long time.
The rural water system was put in through a grant. However, to get the rural water into the town of Garvin, the residents had to assume the cost of eleven miles of line. This cost is being paid by an increase in taxes.
Jim Julien and his family were one of the first residents to get the rural water. “When they were just getting to our town, they asked if anyone was in a particular need, and our water pump had just broken down, along with one in a one block area in town, so we were the first to get hooked up to the rural water, which was on Dec. 9. By January, the remainder of the residents of Garvin and the rural community were on the line.”
The rural water is chlorinated according to the laws legal requirements put in at the treatment plant at Jeffers.
The water from their own wells was “very hard and rusty, and a couple of years ago when I had my water tested, it was also very high in bacteria content,” said Jim. Although he reported that the rural water is still at 18 to 19 grains of hardness, it is easier to soften because the iron is taken out.
“We still have to send in water sample every three months, so it can be tested and the correct chemicals can be placed in it at the Jeffers treatment plant.”
The first month’s water reading was a surprise to the residents when it registered that the town of Garvin had used 127,000 gallons of water.
• Last week’s answer: Tracy’s water tower started on fire in the winter of 1984.
