REKLAW — It’s a period of wait-and-see for the Rusk City Council and residents of the nearby Fairview community, as a Feb. 27 “know-by” date approaches.

That’s when both groups learn whether city officials are eligible to apply for a Small Town Environment Program grant through the Texas Department of Agriculture to fund a project that will extend waterlines into Fairview, where about a dozen households rely on hand-dug wells and bottled water to meet their needs.

“According to (Fairview residents), they’ve always had problems (having access to a good water source),” said Reklaw City Secretary Judy Ritter. “It probably goes back generation after generation — they’ve dug out several wells, but I don’t think there’s ever been a deep water well, just the shallow hand-dug ones, from what I can gather.”

In a Palestine Herald-Press story that ran Nov. 13, 2014, Fairview resident Norman Griffin described growing up without running water, and shared concerns that the situation has caused health concerns due to possible contaminated well water.

Griffin, now in his 30s, told the newspaper that “up until I was 12, I remember going down to the Frankston spring well to fill up jugs for baths. This is still happening today, and yet they act like they have no idea about it. We pay taxes in both (Cherokee and Rusk) counties, and yet no one wants to do anything about it.”

Since then, Reklaw city leaders have looked into grants to help remedy the situation: The STEP grant would bring relief more quickly than a grant from the Texas Water Development Board for a new well, which could take two to three years to construct, said Ritter.

“Even if the STEP grant application was approved, and we were able to extend waterlines into Fairview, we will still have to draw new wells and have storage tanks (erected), because we want to plan for the future,” she said.

A water study done by Tyler engineering firm Schaumburg & Polk Inc. revealed the city’s current system is able to serve the needs of the dozen or so households in the Fairview community, she added.

Meanwhile, city leaders are waiting to hear whether they can proceed with the STEP grant application, she said.

The lines provided through grant funding — which are to be awarded in June — would extend up to three miles, and terminate at Mud Creek. Residents living on the far side of that body would be served by Southwest Rusk County Water Corporation, according to Ritter.

This particular grant, however, is dependent upon volunteers.

In late January, a town hall meeting was convened in hopes of identifying individuals willing to support the project through volunteer time and services.

City council members will convene in a 6 p.m. meeting Feb. 17, and are expected to discuss a short-term remedy — such as purchasing a pallet of drinking water for residents, Ritter said. “There’s nothing else on (the agenda) about the water project, but we want to do something to help them.”

In the meantime, a conversation this past May between a Fairview resident and one from Palestine about the the water situation in the community has brought help from an unexpected source: The Palestine Multicultural Center.

Center director Betty Nickerson said LaTonya Carter began describing conditions in Fairview, and how the lack of clean water had impacted the lives of residents there.

“I asked her how long that had been going on, and she said, ‘We’ve never had clean water,'” Nickerson recalled. “They have contaminated water, and it’s causing health problems.”

She began contacting politicians and turned to social media to raise awareness in hopes of helping resolve the situation.

Next month, she and another volunteer will travel to Dallas to appear on a radio program to appeal to listeners.

“We are steadily seeking help,” she said.

Her hope, Nickerson added, is that one day, she and Carter’s children “will play in the water in (the family’s) front yard.”

Palestine businesses have gotten on board by donating bottled water — stores like Kroger, Brookshires, WalMart, Schlumberger — and one entity even donated a 500-gallon water barrel to Carter’s family so they have ready access to potable water.

Danya Oliver of the Palestine Community Center pointed out that all these donations are a mere drop in the bucket, and that the need in Fairview is ongoing.

Until residents there have access to running water, “we still need to get a lot more people on board (with donating bottled water),” Oliver said.

Donations may be dropped at 1402 W. Oak St., or phone the center at 903-729-3488 to arrange pick-up.

The Palestine Herald-Press contributed to this story.