Council funds projects to improve water quality, automate meter reading

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, March 22, 2016, 11 p.m. — The city’s plans to automate its meter reading will move forward this summer now that the council has awarded a bid to install about 4,500 new “smart” electric meters in May, June and July.

The council approved a bid of $86,692 from Vanguard Utility Service to swap out city electric customers’ meters this summer.

Councilman Fred Hagan discusses the need for improvements at the city water treatment plant. The council approved an engineering services proposal to design improvements and oversee the work.

Councilman Bobby Simpson asked if the work was something city utility employees could do without paying a contractor. City Electrical Engineer Jeff Mills said the contractors will be able to focus on the meter changes full-time and without interruption.

City employees can do the work, but they can’t drop everything they are doing for three months to install the meters, and can’t get it done by July 31, he said.

City staff are already adding equipment to the city’s cable TV infrastructure in order to communicate with the new remote reading meters, Mills said.

“We’re past where we thought we would be to have this capability,” Mills said.

In order to be able to change meters out at local businesses with minimum disruption, the crews will be living in the area in order to do work in off-hours like nights and weekends.

IMPROVING WATER QUALITY. The council approved an engineering services proposal by GRW Engineers to improve the filtration system at the city water plant.

The $209,000 proposal will allow GRW to engineer the needed upgrades at the water plan to reduce problems created by disinfectant byproducts.

In May 2015, test samples for these byproducts rose above acceptable levels. The cause was traced to the city’s water filtration system, which was not have sufficient amounts of organic products removed when the filters are cleaned by reversing the flow of water through them.

The disinfectant byproducts issue isn’t a problem for city water customers, Councilman Fred Hagan explained. The byproducts appear when treated water ages in the distribution system.

Last year, the problem showed up with the city’s wholesale water customers, which include New Haven, Bloomfield, parts of LaRue County and the North Nelson Water District.

GRW will engineer improvements to the water filtration system, assist the city in selecting a contractor and oversee the installation of the new equipment.

Councilman Roland Williams listens during a discussion of the city utility upgrades.

Funds for the engineering work are not in this year’s budget, but will need to come from the city’s reserves. The cost of the actual improvements will be in the range of $1 million, and those costs will be factored into the city’s 2016-17 budget, Hagan said.

WATER FILTRATION. The council approved a bid of $109,585 to conduct a trial project to replace the city’s anthracite water filter media with granulated active carbon.

The project’s goal is to test the active carbon filter system on one of the city’s four water filtration units. The active carbon filtering should do a better job of filtering and reducing the city’s problems with disinfectant byproducts.

DONATION REQUEST PROMPTS DISCUSSION. A request for a donation from the Nelson County Community Clinic sparked a discussion about the council’s lack of specific guidelines governing when it was appropriate to donate taxpayer money.

The letter from the clinic sought donations to sponsor its Dinner With Art (April 22) or its 5k Walk/Run on June 18.

Councilman Fred Hagan pointed to the Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) handbook for its guidance on which donation requests which come before the council should be considered.

“I really think we need to think about these things before we start giving away the taxpayer’s money,” Hagan said.

He suggested the council consider adopting a form that groups seeking a donation would be required to complete. In addition to details about the request, the form would also require the groups to report back as to how the money was spent.

“In the past we’ve given money to organizations, we give it to them and then we don’t know where it went or what they did with it,” he said.

Hagan suggested tabling the clinic’s request until the council could adopt guidelines that would allow it to follow the KLC’s recommended guidelines.

“The way we’ve given money away in the past, we do not follow those guidelines.”

In other business, the council:

— approved a water request from JBH Properties for new 23-lot subdivision that is planned for the east side of New Haven Road across from Quarry Lane.

— approved a request to allow the second annual Reagan Carter Memorial Walk set for Saturday, April 2, 2016.

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