Jones and his neighbors have been asking for years to be hooked up to the water lines running a few hundred yards from their homes.
FAYETTEVILLE -- One low income community in Moore County has been asking for years to be annexed. Now, residents are getting their wish.
Seventy-five residents living on Waynor Road are now going to receive water and sewer service from the town of Southern Pines.
Thomas Jones stopped drinking from his well after finding bacteria in the water.
"We have been buying our water for about 7-8 years,” he said.
Jones and his neighbors have been asking for years to be hooked up to the water lines running a few hundred yards from their homes.
"If they can put [lines] all around us… why couldn't we have it,” asked neighbor Tom Medley.
Jones started to work with Southern Pines and the UNC-Chapel Hill Law Center to get the neighborhood annexed and find grant money for the water and sewer expansion. The town is going to pay $300,000 with the remainder of the $1.1 million project paid by a community development block grant.
Seventy-five residents living on Waynor Road are now going to receive water and sewer service from the town of Southern Pines.
Reagan Parsons, Southern Pines town manager, says they decided to act after visiting the area.
"Once we got out there and started studying it. Obviously they have failing wells; there are some septic issues in the area,” he said.
With the money for the project coming from the city and grants, the only thing residents will have to pay for is connection to the water.
The town says the area was never dense enough to annex unless homeowners asked to be annexed. Parsons says they will start the process of annexing the area once work starts.
Medley is thankful the law center was there to help get 100 percent of the neighborhood agreeing to be annexed.
"I am glad the people from Raleigh are doing what they are doing for us,” he said.
Parsons says it took the community, the town, and the university working together to find a solution.
"I am glad we could all work together very, very well. It is going to be a win-win situation for everybody in the end."
It could be two years before it is completed, and for Jones, it can’t come soon enough.