FARMVILLE – Town Manager Gerald Spates told Town Council members during their regular August meeting Wednesday night that “the water level in the river has gone up.”

Council members clapped and cheered after hearing a Tuesday night rain had temporarily boosted the Appomattox River.

The river's flow just hours prior to the rain was the lowest ever recorded on a July 31st in 86 years, according to data provided Prince Edward County's Board of Supervisors by county administrator Wade Bartlett.

The Board of Supervisors met in a special called meeting Wednesday afternoon, three hours prior to Town Council's meeting, and voted to grant the County's permission to the Town to withdraw water from Mottley Lake to supplement the river's flow (see page one story).

The Town will still need to apply to, and receive permission from, the state's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The Town did release water from Mottley Lake in August of 2008 for 24 hours to test the set-up.

Mottley Lake was not discussed by Town Council Wednesday night, nor were any other measures or plans related to the drought.

The Town issued Voluntary Water Use Restrictions on Monday following last week's decision by DEQ to declare a Drought Watch for the Appomattox River and in Farmville, Prince Edward, Buckingham, Cumberland and other of the river's localities.

On Monday, Spates told The Herald that the Town is “getting everything hooked up at Mottley Lake in case we need it.”

Town Council members were provided by the Town office with a website address so they can monitor the river's flow themselves.