The Dart: Broadmoor leader finishing work from before Tropical storm Isaac

Published 12:04 am Monday, September 10, 2012

LAUREN WOOD | THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT — Charles Sanders, president of the Broadmoor Water Works, pushes dirt with a backhoe to a fill a hole where a water leak occurred on Wisteria Street. Sanders and his crew had repaired the leak before Hurricane Isaac, but waited until after the storm to fill up the hole.

NATCHEZ — Charles Sanders was busy on his backhoe when The Dart landed on Wisteria Street Friday.

Prior to Tropical Storm Isaac moving through the area, the president of Broadmoor Utilities had to fix a water leak on the street. With the threat of rain, Sanders opted not to fill the hole after the leak was fixed until a week after the storm moved through.

LAUREN WOOD | THE NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT — Charles Sanders, president of the Broadmoor Water Works, pushes dirt with a backhoe to a fill a hole where a water leak occurred on Wisteria Street. Sanders and his crew had repaired the leak before Hurricane Isaac, but waited until after the storm to fill up the hole.

“You don’t want to push (the dirt) back in because of the mud,” Sanders said. “You want to wait for it to dry out.”

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Sanders said although the storm didn’t do as much damage as expected, it still caused residents in the Broadmoor area to lose power due to two motors going out.

“We have three legs, and one of them went out,” Sanders said. “When that happens, the motor will still run, but not with enough electricity. Sometimes the breaker will kick it off, but it didn’t do that, and there was a surge.”

The standby motor also surged when they put it in, but power was eventually restored the Thursday evening after the storm came through.

Sanders said he’s been the president of Broadmoor Utilities since it was founded in the 1970s, and he actually used to live on Wisteria Street in the late ’60s through the mid ’70s. Sanders currently resides on Steam Plant Road.

“We have everything Natchez has, except on a smaller scale,” Sanders said of the utility company.

“When they developed this subdivision, they had a lot of applicants for homes, and the ground would absorb the water from the septic tanks, and they had water standing on the ground.”

Because of that, Sanders said he applied for funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help get the company started.

“We set some pretty good standards to keep it as orderly as we can,” he said. “It’s a nice little development out here.”

And standing water was no longer a problem once the sewage system was streamlined.

“Every house in this subdivision has water going into the treatment plant,” Sanders said. “When it comes out, it’s clear water, where cattle can drink it and fish can live in it.”