Holly Trustees Still Waiting on Well Performance Improvement
Barbara Crimond | Jul 21, 2016 | Comments 0
Holly Town Administrator, Jerry L’Estrange noted there was some improvement in the clarity of the water from the south well now that the pipe has been shortened from the bottom by 30 feet, however cloudy water is still being produced at the beginning of operation and then goes clear. If this does not clear, he said the contingency plan is to have it ready to go in case of an emergency. “We can turn it back on and let it pump to clear. We still need three wells in town because of the fire safety issue.” The basic plan is to shorten the pipe even further and reduce the gallons per minute rate of flow to see if that helps alleviate the situation.
One, $13,000 bid has been received for repairing the town’s swimming pool. The town would conduct some of the work at that price to install a new boiler. L’Estrange believed it would take a month to receive a new boiler from an immediate purchase and there is only a month-plus for the pool to remain open. “We might want to think about going through the hot weather with the pool operating as it has been for the past few weeks and by mid-August, if it starts to turn cool, we just close the pool for the season,” he offered as an alternative. He added that the cost is a non-budgeted issue and, “I don’t want to go $13,000 plus over budget right now if we can squeeze it into the next budget.” L’Estrange noted he was discussing financing for the boiler with Atmos Energy who said they can allocate funding for the cost of replacement. He said the PUC recommends that power companies help communities in needs such as this. He said he’d follow that course of action to see what developed.
Some town hall equipment was recently ‘fried’ from a lightning strike that hit either a nearby power pole or the building itself. “It went through our surge protectors, killed two computers, knocked both printers off-line, but Meghan got the printer to work again, but we’re ordering new towers and battery back-ups and back-up hard drives,” L’Estrange explained. This has caused a delay in day-to-day paperwork for the town until replacement parts have been received. All the utility meter readings that were taken the day before the lightning strike were also lost. The administrator said he expects CIRSA to give some reimbursement, but probably not the full amount of replacement.
The trustees decided to have L’Estrange discuss a price for the property at 225 West Cheyenne street that had been deeded to the town. There is an interest in the land from a local resident. “Because the town never used the land beyond clearing a dead tree and taking down a building, we can sell the land outright, without a town vote on what to do with it,” he explained. Before advertising the property or having it appraised, both ventures that come with a cost, the trustees gave the administrator the go-ahead to discuss a price and come back to the trustees with any options that develop from the initial, non-binding negotiations.
There was also a discussion on the best way to advertise and hire a water/wastewater operator for the town. L’Estrange said this is a needed position and he wanted to review a job description with the trustees. “We only have two classifications for workers in the town, Maintenance One and Two and there are some times where there is interaction between the two because of our limited size,” he stated. He felt that the position should be detailed as to what type of work would be performed, sometimes outside the scope of water operator duties. He said the mandated water backflow issue facing Holly would take at least two years to address and wanted to outline a position that would carry over into the future. Those areas and a salary scale were discussed in executive session following the general meeting.
Two public appearances were on the agenda for the Holly Trustees during their July monthly meeting. Holly resident Leonard Grogan asked the trustees to prevent drivers from using his property, an easement in the area of question. The trustees were unable to determine the needed boundaries to come to a conclusion and copies of the documents presented at the meeting will be forwarded to the town attorney to see if a legal determination or any future action is warranted.
Kevin Humrich urged the trustees not to adopt the 2012 International Building Code, but if they had to use anything to use the 2006 Codes which are currently in use for construction and building guidelines. Humrich was informed that it was up to each community as to what they will adopt as currently, the county has no code enforcement regulations.
By Russ Baldwin
Filed Under: City of Holly • Consumer Issues • Economy • Employment • Featured • Utilities
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