By John Howell
Batesville Fire Chief Tim Taylor said that firefighters poured an estimated 1.4 million gallons on the fire that destroyed the Batesville Elementary School kindergarten building.

“We did not have a pressure problem whatsoever,” Taylor told city officials during his report at their meeting Tuesday.

Mayor Jerry Autrey said that Water and Sewer Superintendent Mike Ross monitored with his smartphone the water level at each of the city’s storage tanks during the July 10-11 fire.
Taylor said the estimate was based on comparing Batesville water use from weekend to weekend.

Taylor said he had been aware that one of the city water wells was awaiting a replacement pump that had been ordered days earlier following a $50,030 emergency purchase authorized by city aldermen at their July 7 meeting.

Ross returned to the July 21 meeting to inform the mayor and aldermen that the replacement well at the Dogwood Hills site had to be lowered an additional 100 feet, increasing the cost to $62,335.

Aldermen voted unanimously to approve expenditure of $12,305 as part of the emergency purchase to replace the pump. Ross said that delivery was expected within two weeks.

City Engineer Blake Mendrop said that the additional depth required for the pump to reach water was due to a falling water level in the aquifer from which Batesville pumps its water.