Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Pumping Station Slows School Project

A pumping station and a few tests are all that's keeping water and sewer services from the new Gurdon High School.

Harold Hurst, director of the Gurdon Water Commission, said the pumping station was supposed to be shipped from Kansas on Dec. 7, but nothing has been heard about it as of yet.

All water lines, except a service line to the school, are in place, he told the commission during its regular monthly meeting Monday night. These lines must be pressurized and the system tested for leaks.

Once this is done, the system must be sterilized and water samples taken. These samples will be sent to the Arkansas Department of Health for testing, and if they pass, the system will go on line.

All this can be done by the time students return to class for the second semester -- if the pumping station comes in and the weather holds.

Once the ADH gives its approval, houses on the south side of Highway 67 can also hook onto the system and begin using city water and sewer.

"I don't think we could have gotten a better crew," Hurst said of the workers hired by Bobo and Bain Construction Co. of Hope. "They've wanted to get the work done."

Hurst said the project has ran into a couple of problems, one being the county overlaying the road to the new school and the crews having to bore underneath it.

In addition, the stub outs for the school did not meet contract specifications and a change order was required to make everything work.

"We've had very little flak from the community," Hurst said. "Once we got started, the people accepted it for the most part."

He said Charles Summerford, project engineer, has informed him everything is on schedule for Phase II of the project, which is the parent portion. He said the bids will be let in 1996.

"There's still a lot of work to do," Hurst informed the commission. "There's about 400 easements to get. It will take a lot of time, but the project is going smoothly so far."

In other business, Hurst said there have been some mechanical problems at the treatment plant. A line went bad in 10-inches of concrete department crews had to replace.

Also, the Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology is asking questions about why plants are dying around the city's collection ponds.

Hurst said PCE regulations call for 90 percent plants to be around the ponds, but one ponds has 70 percent and the other has 30 percent. Nothing more can be planted until next spring, he said.

"I don't know if we can get the contractor to replant the plants," he said. "They say it's not what they're doing causing the plants to die."

He said this same contractor had a problem in Waldo with plants because the water level got too low and the plants died.

However, Gurdon's filters are designed to work at six inches below the surface, which is what's required by the contractor.

Hurst said Gurdon's system has a gate to control the water level and make sure it doesn't get below six inches.

"We're working on this all the time," Hurst said. "But some of the plants grow good and others won't."

He said they have made the contractor break up healthy plants to use in the system, even though the contractor doesn't like doing it.

"We're still in the project performance period," he said. "If the PC&E sees the contractor hasn't gotten to 90 percent, they may be more lenient on us."

Hurst said it's getting close to permit time again, which means the system will have to be dechlorinated before the permit is renewed.

The Gurdon facility, he said, is designed to handle dechlorination, but the department will have to buy equipment to do this with.

Gurdon Mayor Rick Smith was also on hand for the meeting. He told the commission the city's copier had worn out and a new one had to be purchased for $2,800.

He asked the commission to foot the bill for half of the copier's cost as it also uses the machine. The city, he said, will continue to furnish paper and toner for the machine, as well as keep it maintained.

Hurst reminded Smith the PC&E requires the department to maintain a certain level of funds above its expenses or it could require another rate increase.

However, the commission agreed the copier is needed and voted to pay $1,400 for it.

In other news, Hurst said the raise the department's employees received won't do them much good because of the insurance rate increases the city has to pay.

He said the city will continue paying $160 for an individual plan, with the employee paying $40 per month. Families will pay $175 for their part, while the city picks up $195.

Smith told the commission this plan will cost the city an additional $13,732 it didn't have in the general fund for the proposed 1996 budget.

He said a committee is being formed to look for equal coverage at a lower cost than the Municipal Health Benefit Fund (provided by the Municipal League), and invited any commission member who wanted to be on it to join.