A Tullos resident aired grievances during the Tullos Town Council’s regular meeting held Monday night, July 10, upset that he paid for a sewer tap that he felt he shouldn’t have had to pay for.

James Morrison was present at the meeting requesting reimbursement of $1,000 he paid for a new sewer tap installation after he alleged he was misinformed by the Town’s utility firm, JCP Management.

This was the second time Morrison appeared before the Council trying to get reimbursement for a project, but Tullos Mayor Karla Cockerham was firmly set on not issuing any reimbursement.

Morrison, who was placed on the agenda, was told by Cockerham that he had three minutes to speak prior to the Mayor setting a timer as he began.

The resident laid out his case before the Council, stating that he had a sewer tap installed at his shop on Sycamore Street and there was a sewer tap already there that was stopped up.

“I was told by Anthony (JCP Management) that it was on the town the first time he came out and then when they came to replace it, he told me the same thing,” Morrison said. “He took pictures of it, documented it, and said it was on the town and the town refuses to give me my money back.”

Morrison told the Council that when his father built the shop, he put a sewer system in but when the Town extended Sycamore Street to the shop they ran sewer lines and his father connected to the town sewer.

“When I bought the shop, it was dug up because it was stopped up,” he continued. “The previous owners dug it up and (JCP) told me that went and tried to unstop it but they couldn’t get it unstopped. It was stopped up before I bought it and now I’m having to pay for a sewer tap that I don’t feel like I should have to pay for.”

Following his comments, Cockerham informed him that his three minutes were up and she would respond.

“When I was contacted about this sewer tap, Anthony said that when he got to the location the pipe has been dug up and he said that it was the site but there was something stopping it up,” she said. “He also said he wasn’t sure that was the location of the tap.”

“Once maintenance got out to dig up that area (they found) that was an abandoned pipe and it wasn’t a tap…it was just a secimproved tion of abandoned pipe that was stopped up,” the Mayor continued.

Tullos Councilwoman Tina Murphrey- Tullos said she felt the issue is really about JCP misinforming Morrison about the tap belonging to the town during original conversations.

Cockerham disagreed, saying the JCP wasn’t sure whose tap it was during original conversations with Morrison and wasn’t sure until they actually went out there to dig up the pipe.

“Once they got out there they found out that wasn’t the tap and that the previous owners had laid clay pipe into the tap that was originally put there… the town did not lay it, it was the previous owners and it had rotted out the tap and it was unusable,” the Mayor said. “So, a new tap was needed and I was on a three-way call with you (Morrison and JCP) and it was explained to you that the tap was unusable.”

Councilman Charlie Brown again brought up Tullos’ point by noting Morrison was repeatedly told it wasn’t his tap.

“The only thing prior to that is he was told by two different ones that it was on the town’s side,” Brown said.

Cockerham said that the area that Morrison was told was on the town’s side was not the tap, but rather an abandoned piece of pipe.

Still, Tullos sympathized with Morrison’s plight.

“I can see your frustration with somebody saying this is a tap and you laid pipe to that after he told you that, so I can see your frustration and then you find out later that evidently he (JCP employee) was wrong,” Tullos said.

Mike McGuffee, from JCP Management, also spoke trying to bring clarity to the issue.

“All I know is what Anthony told me and he originally thought that pipe that was there that was plugged went to the tap,” he said. “Once we went out and dug that up they realized that wasn’t going to the tap but was just a piece of pipe. That’s when they had to find the original tap and when they did they found that tap was not usable.”

Brown then asked the question: “Well, if that tap is not usable then why should he have to pay for it?”

That question went unanswered.

At this point, an exchange between Morrison and Mayor Cockerham began to escalate when Morrison repeated his accusation that JCP told him and the Mayor the tap was on the town’s side, a claim that Cockerham denied.

“I was standing right beside you the first time when he called you and told you it was on the town,” Morrison said.

“No, he has never told me it was on the town,” the Mayor said.

“Karla, I said the same thing to you at the last meeting and you agreed,” he said.

“No, he never said that,” she said. “He said the abandoned pipe was on the town’s side but that was not the tap. We’re talking about two different locations.”

After a few more exchanges, Morrison told those in the meeting that “I’m wasting my time,” and left the meeting.

With that, the Mayor moved to the next item on the agenda.