City of Blytheville ewer director Garry Carr reported to the Airport and Utilities Committee on Monday and during his report PMI engineer Brad Wingfield presented a plan to present to ADEQ for the city’s water treatment plants. These plans involve the combination of two of the city’s three plants, the south and west plant, and an update of the city’s north treatment plant.
“Since I was last here we’ve done quite a bit of work. We discussed our general plan and we took that plan to ADEQ. I’ve developed a facilities plan for what needs to occur at the treatment facilities. This plan involves some work at the north plant to extend its life out 10 or 15 years and then combining the south and west plant into a new facility. Then taking the west plant and putting a pump station at the facility using the old basin…going from there to the south plant and putting in a new facility that has new treatment and new capabilities to set y’all up for 30 years,” Wingfield said.
Wingfield noted that the new plant would save the city about $5,000 a month in energy costs. He stated that the plan was presented to ADEQ and their response was that within 60 days they be sent a revised corrective action plan from a professional engineer that included a milestone schedule for the completion of the work.
“It’s two plus years out before y’all will say that we are going to be in compliance just because of how long it takes for design and construction on these things,” Wingfield said.
Additionally, Carr reported that Jowers General Contracting, Inc. has presented a cost estimate of $49,530 for “point repair of 50 lf of collapsed 12” sanitary sewer main.” The repair work would include complete dewatering of the well including dismantling, necessary backfill material for stabilization, pipe fittings and ground materials, trench safety equipment, labor to complete point repair, concrete street repair, asphalt street repair and clean up of the entire site including the hauling of debris.
Committee chair Councilwoman Barbara Brothers stated that she believed Jowers General Contracting, Inc.’s work to always have been well done and fairly priced and did not have a problem with the price. Councilman Stan Parks motioned to wave the bidding process and send the bid to the Finance Committee. Carr stated that Jowers informed him that they would be able to start anytime once the contract was approved.
In other business, Blytheville Fire Chief Mike Carney reported that the department currently has one fire fighter position open; however, the position should be filled by the end of December. The deparment also issued promotion test in November and as a result of that testing, Matthew Bohannan, Gary Andrew and Jeremy Mhoon were all promoted to the position of driver. Additionally, Darryl Grissom was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
The P1 100ft aerial platform truck has returned to the department after necessary maintenance repair was performed on it and the department hopes to have it back in service as soon as possible. A ladder test will be performed by a testing company and as of the meeting, a date for the test had not yet been set.
The department’s annual renewal of its coverage of the Aeroplex is up this month. The Blytheville City Council will have to approve the renewal at their December meeting.
Assistant Chief of Police Ricky Jefferson reported on behalf of the Code Enforcement and Animal Control departments. He stated that he met with an Entergy engineer and planned a lighting project for South Franklin Street from Parte Street to the Highway 18 and South 2nd Street to the Railroad tracks. He stated that the department still plans to do a project on the remainder of Franklin from Amherst as well as 21st and 16th in January.
gwilliams@blythevillecourier.com