Hitchcock Well Finally Fixed

By Joshua Walther

BLENHEIM - In a rescheduled meeting, the Blenheim Town Board met on Friday instead of Wednesday to discuss the Hitchcock building well finally seeing improvements.

For a few months, the Town Board has been scratching their heads over the Hitchcock building well, an artesian well that has drawn nothing but bad, unusable water for the post office and the EMT outpost.

Last month, they approved a motion to contract one final time to drill the well further down and reduce its eight inch casing down to a six inch, and on the brink of the new year, it was a resounding success.

While the Board was planning to drill as far as they needed, the contractors only had to venture a few more feet down into the earth to find gravel and good water, and Supervisor Don Airey was delighted by how crystal-clear it was compared to the sludge from before.

However, no good news ever comes without a drawback. On New Year’s Eve, the work couldn’t be completed in time and was halted for the next morning, and everyone woke up to a sight to behold.

The new well had caused a sizable sinkhole overnight by the Hitchcock building, totaling six feet deep. From the destruction, a small bush and a manhole cover were lost, and it threatened to compromise Route 30.

However, Supervisor Airey commended the work that the contractors did in cleaning up and the mess before it could grow out of hand, and so disaster was averted.

With the well working once again and the sinkhole taken care of, the Town Board noted with relief that the only thing left to do is a water sample test before the saga is concluded.

Once talks of wells were over, the Town Board ran through several of their yearly appointments, with the most striking being the official highway superintendent.

Since Dave Mattice’s retirement last month, the Town Board has eagerly welcomed Andy Graves as the new department head, and they made it official with an oath of office.

“I’m really excited about this, he’s been exemplary since taking over a few months ago,” said Supervisor Airey, and his new position was met with applause from around the room.

After his oath was taken, Superintendent Graves reflected Supervisor Airey’s excitement, and promised to take just as good care of the roads as his predecessor had.