Govan’s Mayor John Ganus can hardly contain himself when he talks about Govan’s and Olar’s new regional water system.

“This is a very big thing in Govan. The Town of Govan and all of its residents are so excited. We have never had water pressure like this,” said Ganus. “I was getting calls all day about how great the water pressure in the shower was when the water was finally turned on.”

According to Ganus, the first residence went on- line on August 5th at 12:30 pm and all existing water customers are online now. There were no fire hydrants and now they have 15 fire hydrants that are on-line.

This project has been in the works since March 2000. Ganus said that he along with the Mayor of Olar, Brenda Bessinger in 2000, and Willie Cam Nimmons decided to get together and meet with Olar Town Council to represent the ‘Regional Water Committee.’

“We knew that both Olar and Govan had no future without water,” said Ganus. “We felt there was a lot of potential for retirement homes in the area, but without water, there was no future. I never dreamed it would take this long.”

Ganus said three years later, after the first committee meeting, they received notification from Congressman Jim Clyburn and Senator Lindsey Graham that there were appropriations for the water project.

Now nine years later and after a lot of long hours with paper work and meetings with different officials, the two towns now have water.

Funding for the $2 million water project came from a Community Development Block Grant, USDA Rural Development, the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Control Board.

Ganus said there are still some issues that have to be worked out since both towns will have to share the new water system.

The Town of Olar will be the central office and the billing will be handled by Olar Town Clerk, Tom Harris.

A final water rate for customers has not been set, but the start-up rates have been approved by USDA.

“We still have to decide who is going to read the meters and it still has to be fine tuned, but we’re not complaining. We are very proud of our new water system,” Ganus said.

Mayor Ganus would like to thank everyone that helped with procuring the new water project and a special thanks to Jerry Durgan for all the coverage in the Advertizer-Herald throughout the years.