Wastewater costs mount
By Jim Butler
The city is preparing to seek bids on the next major repair at the wastewater plant.
Mayor Bob Morris said the city will solicit offers for four mixers. He estimates their cost at $60,000 to $75,000.
That repair comes on the heels of replacement of valves that cost the city in the neighborhood of $12,000.
Morris has concentrated his attention at the wastewater plant since January.
He told the City Council this month that renovations to keep the facility operating at the required level could cost as much as $400,000.
Morris said the four mixers will replace four that were removed some years back when their hydraulic seals began leaking.
“Why they were taken out rather than being repaired is anybody’s guess,” he said.
Part of the maintenance issues at the plant appear to be tied to turnover in management there, the mayor has said.
The mixers are a key element in the interaction that takes place before up to one million gallons a day of wastewater is turned into environmentally acceptable effluent and discharged into a gulley.
The mayor said he has retained Acadian Engineers and Environmental Associates to develop a plan for replacing diffusers with valves frozen shut.
That step is necessary in order to get air into the treatment process and to find our more about what does, or doesn’t work, at the plant.
“What choice is there?” Morris responded when asked if he thinks the city can afford as much as $400,000 in repairs.
Sewerage fees generate about $1.2 million a year, but department expenses account for all but about $30,000 of that in a normal year.
Morris began to focus on the wastewater system after the council delayed his proposal to reduce usage fee revenues by about $100,000 a year.
The mayor subsequently alleged he found what he called “questionable” matters regarding the plant.
Those matters involve a dispute over an outstanding bill from a vendor and quarrels with the city attorney and a consulting engineer over their roles in the matters.
Meanwhile, the idea of cutting the “toilet tax” or a monthly surcharge has been at least temporarily shelved and the idea of converting to a water-consumption based fee schedule has received almost no attention.