By Joel Spears

CHURCH HILL — With a new, $10 million water treatment plant near completion and a new, $1 million water tank prepared for installation, First Utility District of Hawkins County has also received site plan approval for a new administrative complex and work center from Church Hill Regional Planning Commission.

    Project engineer Steve Robbins said property on West Main Boulevard at Indian Ridge, near Church Hill Healthcare and Rehab Center, is proposed for the development.

    Robbins also said the plan includes a “masonry structure” that faces Main Boulevard to house administrative offices.  In addition to office space, the building will serve as a payment and service center where customers may walk in or use a drive-thru window.

    First Utility’s current office, located in downtown Church Hill, does not include drive-thru service and its administrative offices share limited space with the current treatment plant.

    Behind the new offices, Robbins proposed a second building constructed of metal to be used as a work center.

    While plans included landscaping along Main Boulevard, no initial plans were introduced to landscape property between the work center and Highway 11W.  Commission secretary Robert Stidham proposed installation of a natural buffer between the rear of the property and the highway to make the work area, as well as any equipment stored there, less visible to passersby.

    The commission granted approval for the complex, pending an agreement to aesthetically buffer 11W from the work center.
    No date was give for the project to be completed.

    First Utility’s new water treatment plant, expected to be complete in 2009, is under construction on the south side of Highway 11W and is visible from the proposed office site.

    First Utility District serves residents in Church Hill, Mount Carmel, rural Carter’s Valley, Goshen Valley, McPheeter’s Bend, the New Canton Utility District, and approximately eight customers in Scott County, Virginia. In addition, it sells water to Surgoinsville Utility District.