Eort aimed at improving system safety across board

The city wastewater department is due to get a new camera, following motion by Rick Hodowanic and seconded by Kevin Hendrickson to approve said camera purchase (confirmed in the budget) for an amount not to exceed $7,500.

That being said, there was bigger Wastewater Department news from the Monday March 7 meeting on First Avenue in Stanley: lift station updates to come. Currently old, out of date, made by different manufacturers and with often hard-to-find replacement parts, there seemed little choice if catastrophe was to be avoided. Stanley wastewater operator Nick Martin filled in the Council on the machine's needs.

“You’ll say, ‘this part,’ and they’ll say, ‘well, that compa- ny's been bought out five times,'" Martin shared of the lift station dilemma currently under control but with catastrophe looming in the future if nothing is done. The city’s present lift stations are from five to 40 years old, with a standard life span of 20 years—25 at most. But while the lift stations were upgraded with cell communication to more quickly alert city staff is something isn’t exactly right or risking a backup, this doesn't solve the underlying issue. So what to do?

Martin had some thoughts for the Council Appearing with Diane Thoune of Clark and Dietz, a firm specializing in lift stations, Martin sought to standardize the city’s lift stations in terms of manufacture and parts as well as age, effectively replacing the city’s eight stations at a rate of two per year to ensure that city waste keeps flowing where it needs to.

“Nick wears a lot of hats, just like everyone else,” Thoune said, as she shared that struggling with repairs wasn’t the best place to be in, from a staff work standpoint. The city’s present lift stations had low run times and were not "flash rated," as safety wasn’t a priority when many of the present stations were designed.

Flash ratings relate to a term known as 'arc flash,' in which electrical current leaves its intended pathway and travels to another conductor, or to ground. Causes for an arc flash as listed at www.osha.gov include but are not limited to “dust, condensation, and dropped tools,” with serious injury or death possibilities for those caught in the path of such an event. In short, replacement is about more than station flow. So what's the plan going forward?

“You would want to do a redesign of each station,” Thoune told Mayor Haas when he asked the next step, with Martin saying that the Eighth Avenue station and one on Maple Street were priorities. The first step, Thoune said, would be to do a walk-in, opening the wet wells and having the surveyor come out. With initial replacement costs of $300,000 per station with additional costs as well, Holly Kitchell had a caution for the replacements.

“I’d be a little worried about continuity if we do one a year from year one to year nine,” she said of replacing the stations over time. Increasing the schedule to do two per year would bring the cost to $700,000 for four-plus years in the row, or $2.8 million total. Fitzsimmons asked if it was in the budget, while Rick Hodowanic had a questions of his own.

"How long do they have?" he asked Thoune.

“Twenty years is what we say for lifespan,” she replied, or well below what some of the city stations are at. Which lead to the next part.

"Do we want Diane to put together a proposal?" Mayor Haas asked.

“I think so,” Alderman Kevin Hendrickson said. With the need to upgrade lift stations made evident, a proposal is currently being prepared, though nothing had been re- ceived as of Monday March 14, per city clerk/treasurer Nicole

The Eighth Avenue lift station is considered a priority, with eight stations in all citywide. Photo by Joseph Back.