Water still a concern at Durham
Contributing writer
Anna Mae Goertz presided over a short city council meeting Oct. 4 at Durham in the absence of Mayor Glennon Crowther, who is recovering from surgery. Goertz informed the council Crowther had learned the county will no longer furnish stop signs. He purchased and replaced two signs.
Pete Sommerfeld, water supervisor, reported 589,077 gallons of water pumped in September. "We sold more water than we did last month," he remarked. "I think people were doing a lot of watering." However, there still is more water pumped than is accounted for on the meters, and the council discussed this ongoing problem. Sommerfeld said he had shut off valves and assured that water is not running back into the well, so there must be an undiscovered leak somewhere.
The pumps at the lift station ran 69 hours in September. "That is more than usual," said Sommerfeld. "I think they were running without pumping, but I think we have them working now."
Goertz relayed two other concerns from the mayor: "Glennon said the trees along Third Street still need cutting, but the tractor battery may have to be charged before you can use it."
"I haven't got around to that yet," said Mike Sorenson, who had volunteered to cut them at the September meeting. "I can clean and charge the battery when I do it."
The mayor also had relayed the message that the ditch along Third needed to be checked for settling. Gary Unruh said, "I checked that and put some rock in there."
Among the bills approved for payment were $72.25 for two stop signs and $450 for water line repairs resulting from a major leak in the south part of town.
