Durham News
Contributing writer
The operation of the water system was the principal topic considered at the Durham city council meeting Tuesday, Nov. 4.
The discrepancy between the amount of water pumped and the amount sold has become quite large. According to the meter at the well house, approximately 570,000 gallons were pumped in October. Only a little over 260,000 gallons showed up on consumer's meters.
"Maybe we'd be money ahead to change a lot of the meters in town," said Mayor Glennon Crowther.
"I'm sure we would," answered Pete Sommerfeld, water and sewer supervisor. "They told us in school they should be changed every ten years."
"Some of these have probably been there 30 years," Crowther said.
Sommerfeld said, "I'm out of ideas on where to go or what to do. I've driven all over town and didn't see any muddy spots [from possible leaks in the water lines]."
Crowther remarked, "I don't see how we could be losing that much. I think there has to be something wrong with the meters or water is running back into the well."
Sommerfeld reported that an expert with the Rural Water Association would come on Wednesday to try to determine whether water is being lost and where it is going. That representative had said he has the capability of checking the accuracy of the meter at the well head.
The council decided to postpone action until the rural water expert had investigated and call a special meeting if necessary.
As the new water and sewer supervisor, Sommerfeld presented a job description the council had asked him to put together and discussed his wages.
"I want to commend you for mowing and cleaning the place up," said the mayor. "It looks good."
The council did some fine tuning of the job description, and Sommerfeld will retype it and give a copy to Joyce Medley, city clerk.
Regarding payment, the council asked about how many hours he had put in. Sommerfeld estimated that in the three weeks since he had taken on the responsibility, he had spent about 18 hours on the operation of the system, in addition to another 18 hours on the billing procedures (which he had been doing previously).
Gary Unruh moved to pay $350 per month for operating the system, including mileage. On a second from Mike Sorensen, the motion passed.
The council discussed locks for the gates at the sewer ponds, the lift station and the electric box. They decided to get six identical padlocks to be opened with the same key.
The mayor reported on a letter about the franchise for telephone service the city has with Sprint. Apparently a new law would broaden the definition of local service. Therefore the company is asking for an ordinance which would allow them to lower the percentage paid to the city. According to the letter, the city could expect little or no change in the actual amount of money received. The council decided to postpone action until next month and invite a Sprint representative to come and explain the proposal.
"Are we going to put Christmas lights up again?" Crowther asked. The council decided to put up the seasonal decorations shortly after Thanksgiving.
