The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By: Shirley Linder, Executive Editor
At the Village of Stronghurst board meeting on March 3rd, the water issue of not being able to keep the water tower filled was discussed at great length.
Ronnie Gittings reported that the previous week the water tower became low due to a leak in town and they were unable to keep enough water in the tower for daily use.
He stated when they refurbished the well they had pulled the pump and it had 32 hours to rest, the well was treated and flushed out, and the pump was able to pump at 100 gallon per minute.
This continued until Saturday noon when it dropped to 72 gallons per minute and then couldn’t produce enough water to fill the tower where the daily usage averages 60,000 gallons per day.
Sunday night the pump had ran all night and only gotten 3,000 gallon of water into the tower. Monday (March 3rd) they were able to get 10,000 gallons of water from the well and hauled 30,000 gallons to put in the tower.
The goal, at this time, is to haul water, along with the pump, until they can get the tower full and then determine if the pump can keep up with the amount of water needed.
Doug Erickson, Engineer from Benton & Associates was present to talk to the board about future plans for keeping the village water supply adequate for the village.
He stated the first thing is to have a finance meeting to go over options, as the water fund is losing money and being supplemented from the general fund.
In the short term, Erickson said the options were: 1-haul water and 2-use the RO well, which would mean buying a portable osmosis kit, as water is not potable.
In the long term, the options are: 1-build a RO plant at a cost of 5 to 6 million dollars (most expensive option); 2-buy from Dallas City Rural Water; 3-dig a new well down by the Mississippi River bottom.
Digging a new well is the option the board would like to pursue, which means acquiring 2-5 acres of land, dig test wells, get EPA approval, plan for 5 miles of pipe line, and apply for grants.
Nathan Harden inquired about the possibility of installing a 10,000 gallon water storage tank in order to have a surplus of water in case of emergency.
Plus it would make unloading water hauled in faster to unload. The engineer said in order to do this they would need to play by the water rules.
Gittings reported that every septic tank that they have dug up has tree roots in it. He had talked with Jones Septic Service regarding cost of cleaning them out and was told it would require removing the lid from the tank.
The cost would be $500 unless the lid broke and then it would be $1500.
It was discussed who was responsible for the cost, the village or the homeowner, no decision was made.
In other business the board approved:
Those attending were: Mayor Brendan Schaley; trustees, Mike Bohnenkamp, Janice Smith, Paige Torrance, Amanda Van Arsdale, Nathan Harden, (Mike Swisher, absent); employees, Ronnie Gittings, Brittany Smith, Arbry Vancil; guests, Barry Dowell, Doug Erickson, Davide Knutstrom, Shirley Linder
The next board meeting will be held on Monday, April 7, at 6:00 p.m.