A new water main and hydrants along Redwood Road will be the first of several system upgrades in the Culkin Water District if loan funds administered by the Mississippi Department of Health are secured.

Details of a report prepared by Neel-Shaffer Inc. of Jackson outlining those and other longer-range expansions of service were laid out at a public hearing at district offices Thursday.

Plans include installation of an 8-inch line to run about five miles from near the intersection of Redwood Road and where Mississippi 3 splits from U.S. 61 North to Redwood’s intersection with Oak Ridge Road. A 12-inch line would then run from that intersection about 2,000 feet to the elevated tank on Oak Ridge.

&#8220It is designed and ready to advertise,” said Bobby Redding, a senior engineer with Neel-Shaffer.

Only formalities dealing with the project’s eligibility for loan funds from the state are lacking, Redding said.

The loans, specifically geared to improve drinking water systems, are capped at $1.5 million. Culkin officials expect the costs of improving the entire distribution system to exceed that amount.

The district has been approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for grant funds that would reimburse 75 percent of construction costs.

Other system improvements are expected to take until at least 2009 to realize, but are needed because of what general manager Ken McClellan called &#8220slow, steady growth” in the district’s customer base, now at about 4,150.

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