Page 124 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

NOTA LANDLORD, BUT A “WATER-LORD”

After I had purchased the Old Wes Hancock Farm from Doc Melton, and got ready to divide it up into
21.separate small subdivisions, it occurred to me that I could save some money, and insure a further
source of income, by eliminating the need for an individual well on each lot, since these subdivisions
were well outside the city and no public water supply was available.

At that time an individual well for a house cost about $2,000.00, and it did not take me long to figure out
that if I would sink 3 large wells into a good source of underground water, that I could pipe that water
along all of the streets in the subdivisions and serve each and every house that was built with water
which would give me a monthly income from every lot in each of the subdivisions.

After obtaining the proper permits, and doing all of the things that the Florida Public Service
Commission requires to be done in public water supply systems, it was apparent that 1 could supply
water from a central well field to every lot in the subdivisions at a much less cost than all of those
individual wells would have been, and I would continue to receive income from each of the lots for as
long as I wanted to after I had sold the land itself.

I operated a Water System which extended from Pondview Mobile Home Park just down the road from
the Mormon Church on Country Club Road, and extended all the way down to the intersection of the
Country Club Road with Highway 252, and then back up 252 for about a half mile to a point just west of
where Marlin Feagle now lives. All of the lands running north from 252 to Pondview Trailer park
consisted of some 400 separate building lots, and I operated a water system serving all of those lots for
27 years. In addition to that water system I had one about a mile northwest of Hopeful Church which
served Brandon Heights and Brent Heights, and another water system off of Turner Road, north of the
tracks, which served Pineridge Subdivision, and another water system which served the area that 1 had
developed off of the Price Creek Road, known as Suzanne Subdivision.

A few years ago I sold all 4 of these water systems to the City of Lake City, and pocketed something
over a million dollars profit, and had no further need to send out monthly bills and keep records on all of
those customers. That was not a great job for me to have to do, since I had secretarial help that could do
all of that, and it turned out to be really a profitable venture.

Not only that, but it was of immense help to me in selling out all of those 21 subdivisions to 21 different
developers, inasmuch as the people who bought the subdivisions totally escaped any cost of having to
put in a well on each lot. It simply made the lots much more saleable, and thus added to their value. I
don’t think there is a vacant lot, or an unsold lot, in that entire area now.

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: B423BA50-F22B-4D87-A44C-403308C92982