Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet To Replace City's Sewer Pumps

It was an expensive night for the Emmet City Council as it voted to replace pumps at the sewer pond, lease a tractor and drill a new well.

This was done at the council's regular monthly meeting Wednesday, June 14.

Emmet Mayor Dale Booker opened the meeting by telling the council it was going to have to make some big money decisions.

He began with the smaller expenditures, saying the tractor has been leased for $398.36 per month, and needed $2,700 appropriated to pay the lease for the remainder of the year.

"This is a money spending night," Booker said, "but we have no choice."

He then told how the 10 horsepower pumps at the sewer pond have both gone out, though the light on the control panel showed one was working. However, this pump had apparently gone out some time ago, but a glitch in the system kept the light showing green.

The three horsepower pumps, he said, cost about $3,000 each. Booker told the council he thinks the 10hp pumps will be about $5,000 each.

The council gave him the authority to price and purchase two new pumps and will appropriate the money at the July meeting.

Booker did have some good news for the council. He said the suit with the contractor who installed the water lines for the Emmet Water Project has been settled, with the contractor being paid off.

There was, in fact, about $15,000 left over for the city to use for cleaning up the mess left by the contractor.

But, Booker told the council it had two choices on what to do with this money.

He explained drilling a new well and installing the required equipment along with constructing a new building will cost $179,223. The bid for this project was let in July 1999 with W.E. Pender and Son of Texarkana winning the contract.

Booker contacted the two companies from the bidding, with representatives from Lane of Earle, saying they were too busy at this time.

Pender agreed to do the project and at the same cost bid last year, $162.930.

Overall, Emmet, Booker said, had $141,000 left from the water project to get the well done. This, though, was some $38,000 short of the funds necessary to complete the job.

He told the council their options were to use the $15,000 from the suit to do the cleanup work, or put it toward getting the well drilled.

"Looks like we have no choice," said councilman Dick Snell.

The group decided to put this money toward getting the well drilled and have the city do the cleanup itself.

Booker was asked about water prices going up in the future. He said they definitely will because the Rural Development Agency, formerly Farmer's Home Administration, recommends examining the billing annually from the city's audit and adjusting it accordingly.

He said when he was mayor before the water rates weren't raised because he thought someone may get in office who would spend any excess funds foolishly. But, he continued, had the rates been raised the city would have had money for some of the extra construction it needs to do.

"I didn't want to take a chance on the money being spent foolishly," he said.

Pender and Sons will drill the new well, install a submerged pump, tie it into the existing system, erect the building and install a master meter.

The city's part of the project will be to put up a chain link fence, redirect a ditch in the area, do the groundwork and gravel inside the fenced area around the building, along with building a short road to the facility. Booker said the city could do this for about $10,000.

Billy Joe Arnett, one of the council members, asked if the new well would be hooked into the system like the current well.

Booker said the pump for the second well will be hooked into the system and pump water into the tank. A warning device in the tank is activated by the water level inside.There will be an electronic switch connected via phone line to City Hall to alternate pumps between the two wells making sure the water level doesn't drop below a specified level.

The new well, Booker said, will be designed to be hooked to a generator in times of power outages, and another generator will not have to be purchased.

With little choice, the council approved a resolution accepting the bid from Pender.

Booker said construction on the new well will begin in a couple of weeks if the paperwork can be done quickly enough. Otherwise, there could be a delay in getting started.

When the project is completed, he said, the city will be responsible for doing the final inspection. This will be done by Booker and Frank Faulkner.

"There's something I've been unhappy about since I took office," Booker told the council. "The computer program used for bookkeeping is confusing to use and doesn't do the reports the mayor and council needs."

He said the reports the program can do are no good to either he or the council as they don't provide enough details to follow exactly how and where funds are spent.

Getting a new program, he added, could mean the computer would have to be upgraded. The program Booker has in mind would cost $700 or $800, but he will check prices to see what else may be available.

The meeting wound down with Booker telling the panel he had started mapping Emmet to meet future 9-1-1 emergency service requirements, as well as to help eliminate confusion because of street names.

A lot of changes have been made in Emmet over the years, he said, with few being recorded. Several streets have more than one name which is confusing.

His idea is to split Emmet at Main Street in an East-West manner, thereby doing away with duplication of streets on both sides of the track.

Currently there are two First, Second and Third streets in Emmet on either side of the tracks.

Booker told the council he was in favor of having streets named after people and families important in Emmet. The council agreed.

He also said addresses would be changed to meet 9-1-1 requirements, so when the emergency phone system goes into effect in Nevada County Emmet will already be in compliance.