Don’t Get a Room with a View
Rats Thrive On Jailhouse Sewage
By BOB SMITH
Times-News Staff Writer
If you’re ever a guest in the Sullivan County Jail in Blountville, don’t ask for a room with a view.
Those are the ones with the accompanying stench.
Part of the sewage from the jail and adjoining courthouse overflows daily into a small stream behind the jail, and the resulting odor surrounds the jailhouse, bothering prisoners and officers alike.
“Sometimes it gets so bad,” said an inmate, “That I can’t even eat.”
The stream looks clean enough from a short distance away — several tame ducks even swim in the clear water — but up close a thin film of scum is visible on the surface and dozens of entrances to rat tunnels can be seen. The stream banks are honeycombed with tunnels and hide hundreds of large rats, according to one officer.
“We’ve been living with the smell … but what happens if those rats bring some kind of epidemic in the jail?” he asked.
The problem, another deputy said, began when the courthouse sewage pump broke down many years ago and no one bothered to fix it.
The pumphouse is still there, but the wooden roof has rotted and fallen apart. An electric switchbox which controlled the pump is hopelessly rusted.
The pumphouse sits atop the completely full cesspool; the exposed raw sewage inside teems with millions of maggots, less than 50 feet from the jailhouse kitchen. Former Sheriff O.C. ‘Tex’ Akard recalls that foul odors were a problem in his time until workers dug up his garden across the creek, filled the area with gravel, and installed field lines. When the pump began carrying the sewage to the field lines, the smell subsided.
But the pump quit operating during either the administration of Akard or his successor, former Sheriff Kyle Weaver, and the odors returned. “When there’s no breeze, it’ll take your breath away,” said a deputy, who told of shooting as many as six rats during a few minutes of “target practice” behind the jail.
Others have also complained about the smell, including jurors and visitors who park their cars near the jail while on business in the courthouse. But so far nothing has been done about it.
Sheriff Bill Wright. who inherited the problem, admitted that “it gets pretty raunchy sometimes” but said he didn’t know who was responsible for correcting the problem. Wright said he had discussed it with a grand jury member earlier this year, but the matter went no farther.
Exactly who is responsible for maintaining the sewage system? Magistrate Carl Phillips of Kingsport, who is chairman of County Court’s committee on the courthouse grounds, said he also doesn’t know but intends to find out.
Phillips said the problem had been brought to his attention several months ago and tentative plans had been made to investigate it. He said he hopes to meet with his committee before next week and draft a resolution suggesting that the problem be corrected, then submit the resolution to County Court when it meets next Tuesday night in an adjourned session in Blountville.
The problem is going to have to be solved,” he said.
