To the Editor,

Kudos to Chocowinity and Beaufort County officials for upgrading wastewater facilities on the south side of the river.
However, why do we have to build ugly utility shrines?
The new wastewater pump station on Old Blount Creek Road, near Highway 33, is an unpleasant industrial citizen in a tranquil rural residential neighborhood. A gaudy chain link fence secures the underground pump room and weatherized emergency generator. The most grievous offense: five floodlights garishly lighting the utility monument — and everything else!
Urban governments have learned to hide utility facilities within disguised buildings. A more pleasant solution would have been to build an inexpensive, forest-green metal building to hide the pump station. With overhead doors and unobtrusive over-door lights, the structure would secure, weatherproof, and hide utility equipment while fading, out-of-sight, into the woods to become a good citizen. A secure building would eliminate fencing and expensive equipment weatherproofing while adding little total cost. Modern low-light video monitoring could enhance security without ongoing expensive harsh lighting.
This same argument should apply to the Chocowinity Wastewater Pump Station on Bragaw Lane behind the Burger King and the new concrete sarcophagus and emergency generator at Water and Bonner Streets in the Washington Waterfront District. Hiding utility equipment in a building with area appropriate facade would have been more pleasant.
It would have been nice for officials to hide the Old Blount Creek Road facility. However, as this neighborhood becomes compact urban, our leaders have chosen to subject citizens, for the next fifty years, to an ugly, overly lighted industrial utility shrine.

 

James Keen

Chocowinity