Down to no “official” water department employees, the Stanley City Council on Wednesday voted to spend $177,135 with two outside contractors to keep the water plant up and running for the next three months.
In a special meeting Wednesday, Oct. 29 that was at times tense, the council vote was unanimous after 40 minutes of presentations, input from current public works employees and council discussion, the council vote to contract with Donohue & Associates at a cost of $72,400 and J.F. Ahern in the mount of $104,735 was approved.
The first item on the agenda was to accept the resignation of current water department employee Jeriame Czubakowski, who gave his two weeks’ notice to the city Oct. 21. “This is my official two-week notice letter. My last day of working for the City of Stanley will be Oct. 31, 2025,” his note read.
Council member Laurie Foster commented to Czubakowski, who was sitting in the back row of the council conference room, “I’m sad to see you leave, unless you reconsider that.”
Czubakowski shook his head no.
Over the summer, both water operators, John Hoel and Czubakowski were given notice they were being terminated. However, a huge crowd turned out at a community meeting moved for the crowd to the Stanley Community Center at Chapman Park, and the council voted to keep them on. Ironically, they both left the city a short time later for other employment.
Donohue has offices throughout the Midwest, while Ahern is headquartered in Menomonie. Under the contracts, Donohue will oversee day-to-day operations and train new staff, and Ahern will have a journeyman plumber on site to run the water plants.
The city’s interim water operator in charge is Jon Strand, from the city’s engineering firm CBS Squared.
The two companies, with the help of city public works employees, will have a big job ahead of them to run the Northwest and Central Water Treatment Plants.
Foster put in bluntly.
“We’re having a lot of problems with brown water,” she said.
Mayor Henke said the meeting was for one main purpose:
“Come Monday morning, who’s running the plant?” he asked.
The Donohue contract is for 308 hours for three months but it doesn’t involve day-to-day operations.
“Who would cover operating hours during the week?” Henke asked.
A Donohue representative answered, “We don’t cover that.”
Ahern was brought in for a few days last week to help with normal operations.
Wastewater Operator in Charge Nick Martin and Streets and Grounds foreman Joe Schmitt raised concerns about the water operations throughout the meeting.
“Donahue is not a Band Aid. We need surgery,” said Schmitt. “We have to start somewhere folks. We have to train the next operator. The city is in a nosedive right now for operators.”
The council’s plan is to have new operators hired by Dec. 1, so they can be trained on running the complex water systems.
“We’re going to be three weeks out, at best probably a month,” council member Mark Fitzsimmons said about new staff.
“We need operators guys,” said Martin. “Our plants aren’t running 24 hours without breakdowns. The Central Plant is. Northwest isn’t.”
Current public works staff will still get the middle-of-the night alarms when there’s a problem.
Martin urged the council to act fast and keep on top of the issue.
“If you guys vote on this, it’s not over. We have to get the ball rolling. We need an operator Monday a.m.,” he said.
Henke urged the council to approve and have the two companies come back to the Nov. 17 meeting and report to the council. He said he was going to talk to public works employee Jake Lukes about working in the water department three days a week.
“It’s me and Jake, that’s it,” said Schmitt. “No one wants to listen. Me and Jake drew the short straw. That doesn’t bother some people in this room.”
Then came the $174,695 question: “How are we paying for this?” asked council member Ben Wald.
Henke answered, “Out of our normal operations,” noting that water bill payments were coming in.
He and City Administrator/Clerk Nicole Pilgrim had a brief terse back-and-forth about that. She noted that there are already major projects that have to be paid for.
“You have a $420,000 street going in for one person,” she said, referencing a West Industrial Park project.
Henke said the city may have to “pull money back from the state” to pay for everything.
Under the contracts:
•Donohue:
“The City of Stanley operates two municipal water treatment facilities requiring operational and technical support to maintain reliable performance and regulatory compliance. Our firm will perform a system evaluation, operations assistance, training and maintenance support for both the Northwest and Central Water Treatment Plants. The initial goal is to restore the Northwest Plant into operation to alleviate the overloaded condition of the Central Plant,” the proposal states. “At the Northwest Plan, services will focus on troubleshooting and optimizing ozone and reverse osmosis systems, air compressors, valves and chemical feed equipment, along with implementing a preventive maintenance program. At the Central Plant, we will assist with operations and water quality monitors.
“Our team will also deliver comprehensive operator training, update standard operating procedures and support WDNR compliance reporting. These services will help ensure consistent water quality, enhance system reliability and strengthen the city’s in-house operational capacity.”
•Ahern:
A union journeyman employee 40 hours per week, along with eight hours for an apprentice. Emergency, weekend or after-hours calls aren’t included in proposal and would be billed separately.